PW:Replying to Stephanie & Bob.

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So what is it that "primitive war"/"writ-large" type stances miss? My
tentative definition of war would at a minimum encompass firstly the notion
of a state, with a division into military and civilian sectors; secondly, a
set of formal legalistic conventions governing the beginning, conduct and
conclusion of hostilities (even if such protocols are more honoured in the
breach than the observance!); third, and of perhaps primary importance, a
view of 'war' as *extraordinary* and 'peace' as norm(al)ative. Thus, (eg
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If war is an extraordinary state of affairs then the Classical Greeks
are below the military horizon as you define it.

Further, the state itself, as Hobbes points out is the union of war and
civil power, the distinction is artificial, as an analysis of state actions
during wartime reveals. The state is a warmaking institution, all of its
other activities, including welfare, derive from this. Justice is the
effort to suprress war activity within the polity. The state always seeks
to maintain a monoploy on violence.

Kenneth Gauck
c558382@mizzou1.missouri.edu

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