The dilemma of insecurity can be explained, but the reason as to why wars break out is not known. Different international relations scholars have classified wars into four categories. The four types of wars are Limited war, general war, civil war and Terrorism war.
The first type of war is limited war. Limited war is identified with the type of weapons used, purpose and target of the war. A limited war is meant to accomplish a specific purpose, and plans are made before commencing the war (Mingst et al., 2018). Good examples of limited wars include the gulf, the Korean and Vietnam wars. The wars were fought from the perceptive of the united states. The second type of war is the general war. General war refers to a war that is fought to occupy the enemies' territory. The weapons used in this type of war are civilian and military. Examples of general wars are the wars that were fought in the twentieth century. General and civil wars share similarities. However, it is essential to note the difference between the general war and the Civil war.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Civil war occurs between factions within a state. To some extent, civil wars can also be categorized as general wars. Examples of civil wars are intermittent wars that occur within most African countries (Mingst et al., 2018). Nonetheless, as much as civil wars occur between states, they may also have international consequences. Civil wars can result in conflicts between neighboring states. However, civil wars do not leave significant effects as terrorist wars. Terrorist wars are wars that are designed to instill violence and fear against the enemies of a country. The powerless party usually uses terrorist wars against the powerful party. Terrorist wars can include aircraft hijackings and bombings. An example of a terrorist war is the war that occurred in December 1973, where the Arab terrorists murdered thirty-two people in Rome airport to attack the U.S aircraft. Another example was the U.S Cuban missile war, which began as a terrorist war and nearly resulted in a nuclear war.
The U.S missile crisis was borne when an explosion occurred at the USS Main Havana harbor in Cuba. These events attracted the intervention of the U.S. However, the U.S move to intervene led to a conflict between the two countries. As the U.S-Cuban relations deteriorated, Castro requested the intervention of the Soviet Union. Eventually, the Soviet Union signed a variety of trades and formed agreements to aid Cuba. They equipped Cuba with arms and weapons and offered political support to the united nations' Cuban revolution. In 1962 the U.S military released a spy squad that found the Missile installation sites (Martins, 2018). The effects of the installation were significant and could easily reach their targets. With time the attacks escalated, and neither Cuba nor the U.S was willing to retaliate. These events led to developing a contingency plan geared towards a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The war was based on realism, liberals, and constructivist approaches to preventing wars.
The realism approach motived the U.S persistence. This approach states that states should look out for their interest first. States should always be prepared and implement strategies to handle attacks. Thus, neither Cuba nor the U.S was willing to retaliate because they believed in realism. (Mingst et al., 2018). Additionally, realism suggests that international relations are driven by competition between states, and each state should try to further their interest. Besides realism, the countries also implemented a constructivist approach.
The constructivist approach can also be used to explain the Cuban missile crisis. From a constructivist approach, the Soviet Union and the U.S had different cultures, which led them to make inconsiderable decisions (Mingst et al., 2018). Both countries decided to respond with violence rather than holding negotiations. However, they eventually came to an amicable solution through the implementation of a liberal approach.
The liberal approach argues that the state can coexist peacefully. This approach disregards the idea that nations are constantly in conflict (Martins, 2018). Thus, the Cuban missile crisis was ended by the liberal approach to sit down, talk, and agree. Even though Cuba and the U.S retained their weapons, there was no single fire that was shot, which made it a cold war.
After strong resistance, the U.S was successful in drawing up different approaches that made the Soviet Union remove the installed weapons. Notably, from the turn of events, the U.S implemented different approaches to preventing war and turning it into a cold war (Fay, 2018). The united states approached president Kenneth to convince him to request the Soviets to withdraw the missiles. Their strategy to approach Kenneth was encouraged by the realism approach. They believed that the characteristics and personality traits of the president affected his decision making. Apart from the realism approach, the U.S also used the Liberal approach to end the war.
The liberal approach states that conflicts can be solved through negotiations. Thus, the U. S held negotiations with the Soviet Union and Cuba and advocated for removing the weapons. The liberalism approach significantly led to success in ending the crisis (Martins, 2018). According to liberals, poor judgment by leaders and aggressiveness can lead to the outbreak of war. Thus the U.S government found it fit to hold negotiations with the president to end the crisis.
Further, the U.S government had put a missile in Turkey right at the doorstep of the Soviet Union. This move was motivated by the realism approach (Fay, 2018). They aimed to communicate to the Cubans that they were ready for war and encourage negotiations. The realism approach is based on prioritizing the interest of an individual state.
Conclusively, among the prevalent international relation issues, security is the most dominant. Notably, with or without security, wars still break out. Thus, scholars have categorized these wars into limited, general, civil and terrorist wars. One of the most famous wars is the missile Cuba crisis. This was motivated by realism, constructivist, and the liberal approach.
References
Fay, K. E. (2018). Rewriting History: The Impact of the Cuban Missile Crisis on American Journalism.
Martins, D. (2018). The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Joint Chiefs. Naval War College Review , 71 (4), 91-110.
Mingst, K. A., McKibben, H. E., & Arreguin-Toft, I. M. (2018). Essentials of international relations . WW Norton & Company.
