DJ

Observation #4: A militant group uses war to gain power unavailable through democratic means. If the outside enemy benefits politicians of the State, violence itself does the same for a militant group. In my last post on the subject, I…

Observation #3: Identifying an outside enemy gives leaders the ability to control inside events. A war is never about what they say it’s about: often it’s about something entirely different. In Sri Lanka, the 24-year war with the LTTE has…

Observation #2: In war, there’s always someone on all sides who benefits. In politics, they say “Follow the money.” In analyzing a conflict, the concept is similar: look for who benefits. There’s almost always some group or person that benefits…

Observation #1: A war is never about what the combatants say it’s about. War is more than people shooting at each other. It is a symptom of an underlying conflict that is usually complex and has political, social, and economic…

“[M]any of our intellectual weapons for peacemaking are hopelessly out of date… the way we make anti-war must reflect the way we make war.” –Alvin & Heidi Toffler (1993) As John Robb observes, we have entered into a time of…