Commentary: Conflict-from causes to prevention?

摘要

Modern war is not an expression of innate aggression but an economic and social construction. It is an attempt to settle, by violence, disputes over political power, territorial and ethnic issues, and societal stresses such as injustice and poverty. It is vital to address the roots of conflict. It is equally important to reduce the supply of arms, particularly to developing countries, as almost all of the approximately 30 currently active conflicts are in less developed countries, which, as Stewart notes, carry the main burden of deaths from war. According to the UN Development Programme, global military spending has fallen from a cold war peak of about $1 trillion (￡709 million million) to around $750bn in 2000.