PEACE AND WAR Peace and war are two very important global issues today You might see them discussed often in the media such as on television the Internet and in newspapers or magazines Peace and war are often discussed together because of their close link War is the result of a failure to reach peace in a conflict The terrible realities of war and wishes for peace are things that we often hear about every day Peace is sometimes a difficult word to define Peace can be thought of as a state of tranquillity where people are happy and everyone gets along with each other It’s often defined as the opposite of war or conflict Some people believe that real peace isn’t sustainable and see peace as existing only between times of war or conflict IS THE COLLECTIVE NAME FOR ALL OF THE POPULAR FORMS MEDIA SUCH AS OF COMMUNICATION NEWSPAPERS RADIO TELEVISION INTERNET AND THE These symbols are known around the world as signs of peace 4
War is usually described as conflict violence and fighting between separate and organized groups of people Each side in a war will usually have their own military weapons leaders soldiers tactics and reasons for fighting The activities involved in fighting a war are called warfare And of course war always leads to loss of life injured civilians people being forced out of their homes and cities and towns being destroyed THIS MEMORIAL IN VIRGINIA COMMEMORATES ALL U S MARINE CORPS WHO HAVE DIED IN BATTLE It is easy to see how living in a peaceful world would be a lot better than living in a world where wars are always being fought Although fewer soldiers die in wars today than in almost any other period of history many civilians are killed There is still a long way to go before peace for all on Earth can be achieved 5
Throughout history wars have been fought for many different reasons A prevalent cause for war has been a desire for land and resources These include such things as land itself food natural resources such as water or lumber and energy such as oil These are the things people need to survive and also the things that make countries wealthy and powerful Many wars have been fought to attain power and gain land and also to defend territory For almost all of human history wars have been fought over land and resources It seems possible that with our current technology wars fought over resources could become a thing of the past In 2015 for example enough food was produced to feed the world’s population twice over and with today’s technology we are able to transport food almost anywhere But that food is not distributed evenly One in every nine people about 795 million people worldwide still don’t have enough food to eat There is still a long way to go 6
One of the most common reasons for going to war is to gain power Civilians have gone to war against their own governments in order to gain power over their country Similarly governments have gone to war against their own people to retain or keep power over a country Some leaders have gone to war because they want more power over areas of the world that have land or resources that could make them money Culture can also lead to war Different groups of people around the world often experience conflict with each other because they have different cultures This may be because their cultures practice different religions or because they hold different values Sometimes different cultural groups fight one another in wars because their beliefs are conflicting or opposing Even though people around the world are becoming more tolerant and accepting these reasons for going to war may never completely disappear This is because people are often motivated by or make decisions based on a want for power or the influences of their culture 7
