Why Americans Choose War

By Ginny Finch

“Conflict resolution isn’t about cutting deals,” says Richard Rubenstein. “It’s about exploring the underlying causes of the conflict and seeing if anything can be done about it.” Rubenstein is a professor at George Mason University’s School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution and the author of Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War.

In Sunday’s adult ed session, Rubenstein challenged the notions that Americans choose war instead of peaceful negotiation because they’re gullible idiots or because they’re natural-born killers. No, said Rubenstein, we’ve never entered a war without serious debate, and our consent to risk lives and take lives  has more to do with  “principles” than “interests”—for example, the principle of a “just” war.

According to Rubenstein, Americans who choose war tend to be religious, with  a set of values, beliefs, and attitudes that have a relationship to organized religion (but aren’t necessarily the same.  Using past wars and the current civil war in Libya to illustrate his points, Rubenstein examined with his audience issues such as whether or not to intervene in a country’s civil war and what alternatives exist to preemptive humanitarian intervention

For more information on George Mason’s School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, visit
http://www.icar.gmu.edu. 
 

For information on his book and to read his blog, see:http://www.reasonstokill.com/