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Great Nations Win Without Fighting
12. June 2018 at 17:05
A nation is defined by people having same objective, same ideology. For long,nations have been struggling to rise and make their ideology valid. Those who sustained, became great nations by constant struggle. And these nations did not win by fighting but other factors like social,political, and economical played more important part than violence.
It can be said that violence is the priority of incompetent, but is not for them who struggle, who work hard and expect a good outcome. In the contemporary age of time, the peaceful rise of China and other Asian tigers proves this point that war is not an inevitable phenomenon. After the Treaty of Westphalia, these nations became nation-state system, and now they have to protect their nation as well as the legitimacy of their states. And from that time, many wars have been fought resulting in high rate of human and other losses. In the end, these nations came to peace. But this is not how great nations win. In fact, this is how those nations win who prefer violence, who do not take genocide seriously, and who are of imperialistic mindset. However, great nations have always risen through a long struggle avoiding war, care for human life and remaining peaceful.

On this point, these nations have risen due to many factors including social, political, economic and securitization of themselves. Once known as the third world countries, these Asian tigers have risen through economic revival and not by fighting. Take Japan for instance, after the end of world war 2, it has restrained from going into any major war. This nation has risen peacefully keeping their cultural diversity, their social values and tradition. They did not get affected by other ideologies but were affected by war. Though lesson learnt, Japan has struggled to rise due to its economy. Leading car manufacturing companies like Honda, Toyota etc have played a role in this part. Moreover, people living there still remember the consequences of what atomic bomb did and since then Japan has remained neutral in cold war, and other international conflicts. War only creates more hostilities than negotiations. Whereas, peace can be achieved through other means as happened with Japan. Take the examples of Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, where these all nations constantly struggled to uproot their economy, and making little progress for militarization.

In the meantime, looking at the west, we come to know the rise of European countries. For instance, the rise of Germany is not due to what happened in world war 1 and 2 with them. But they chose not to go to war again, as it did cost them in economic, social, and security perspectives. One of the main factors for this rise is political. Their influential leaders, and especially Angela Merkel took the charge of Germany, struggling constantly for it to be a great nation. In fact, according to Pew Research conducted in 2017, in which 37 nations were to make the assessment, more than 52% agreed that Merkel is the reason for what Germany looks like in the contemporary time, making her one of the best leaders to help in uplifting a war-torn nation. Moreover, with the ongoing post-Brexit, it is likely that Germany will be the next unofficial leader of European Union. Though this nation fought the major world wars, they have come to realize that war is one of the factors for a nation to rise and this should be avoided at any cost.

One of the main factor of nations becoming great in the contemporary time is due to globalization. This has made nations avoid war and connects them socially through mutual cooperation, cultural diversity, and agreements. Connect them politically through free trade agreements, trade negotiations, and increasing dependency on one another. For instance, most of the part played in this was, by the creation of United Nation Organization. Post-1945 era faced cold war, but this did not change into actual war, as many nations in United Nation started to negotiate on peace terms rather than through fighting. The two superpowers, USSR and USA, tried to avoid war. And factors like politics and economy played an important part in it. Moreover, United Nation was made on the objective that, nations will try to cooperate rather than keeping hostile relations among one another. And this has proven right to the extent that most nations have risen peacefully. United Nation made these nations connected socially so that they can connect politically and economically.

Interestingly, many great nations did not choose to go for war. As social, political, economic, and securitization causes played an important role. During World War 1, America tried to remain neutral due to several reasons in order to avoid war. Russia refrained from going back to war due to Russian Revolution. And this was not that they were afraid or did not have the capability, but they chose not to go to war due to the fact that it creates more bloodshed. Looking more recently, the rise of China and rise of Germany. These nations have tried to avoid any ongoing proxy wars, and civil wars happening in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. These two nations and other such nations tried to avoid war, due to their political and economic reasons. It can be truly said that although war ends in peace negotiations, avoiding it and working on social, political and economic grounds, great nations have risen without fighting.

More importantly, avoiding wars and living peacefully have great impacts on society. It is in human nature that he learns from past and avoids that past from happening again if results are devastating. However, many great nations who came to an end was the result of repeating that history which had devastating effects. For instance, Germany in World War 1 lost a lot of lives and was economically torn. But still they chose to go for World War 2, considering they can win by fighting, but this could not be achieved. Sometimes history gives the lesson while sometimes it gives the reason to achieve a lesson. Germany achieved that reason, that wars do not make nations great but other factors like politics and economy play a vital role. Moreover, avoiding war will help a nation create more peace agreements. It will create institutions like World Trade Organization, where they can have free trade agreements and where they can work in cooperation. It can create social institutions like United Nation, where they can discuss their problems and other nations can help them. It can create security agreements like Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, where they can ask nations to avoid making nuclear weapons.

On this point, avoiding war will be a reason for nations to be great nations. Through these institutions, they connect socially, economically, and through these grounds, have some nations achieved success. Whether it is the Asian tigers, Australia, Western Europe, or North America, all these nations have struggled on an economic basis in the contemporary time, to rise peacefully. Apart from America's political instability causing problems recently, this nation has achieved success economically and through its strong security measures. In fact, nations build their security in order to protect them from being attacked by any hostile state. Moreover, European Union is politically unstable due to the post-Brexit scenario, which has created a negative impact on other nations. But even in this Union, Germany has achieved success to be a great nation. It has a politically stable government, which is helping Germany prosper economically as well as they have increased their security, that is, defense budget. The politically unstable European Union did not become a hurdle in the rise of Germany, and more importantly, Germany is helping EU nations economically to see them stable. This is to say that, great nations rise peacefully, and even help other nations to have stability in their states so that any major conflict can be avoided. These great nations connect others through mutual cooperation, agreements and treaties, so to avoid instability.

To conclude, learning from historical situations to contemporary time, it can be said that whenever a nation tried to go to war, it resulted in them costly. Whereas, those nations who tried to learn the lesson from history, and have realized that through politics, economics, and securitization, war can be avoided. And this made them rise peacefully to be great nations. Moreover, contemporary examples like the peaceful rise of China, Asian tigers, Germany, tells us that war is not an inevitable phenomenon. But it can be avoided through mutual cooperation and agreements. On this point, globalization has played a vital role in the shape of United Nation and other such institutions, which helped nations to keep peaceful relations among them. And through these institutions, nations have achieved success to be great nations. More importantly, avoiding war has great social, political, economic, and security impact. It can be truly said that war costs human lives and has devastating impacts on the society. Whereas, these great nations have proven that war would not happen if certain factors are taken into consideration. This is to say that, in the contemporary age of time, nations are now avoiding war in order to be like ones whom they call as great nations.
Cite This Article As: Zulfiqar Ali Ramzan. "Great Nations Win Without Fighting." International Youth Journal, 12. June 2018.

Link To Article: https://youth-journal.org/great-nations-win-without-fighting





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