VIOLENCE IS . . .

Political: when individuals, groups and states threaten, maim and kill to gain power or impose their will.

Political Violence: Some Things You Should Know

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction [of war] is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy? 

— Gandhi

War may well be the cataclysmic combination of all forms of violence. In war there is the death of innocents and combatants alike — children, mothers, the elderly. In war women are raped, children are exploited and forced to pick up arms and men are conscripted to kill their neighbors. In war there are political and economic consequences that ultimately end in the displacement of people, food shortages and famine, political instabilit and economic ruin. In war the environment is littered with bombs and destruction, mines and long-lasting volatile pollutants. In war natural habitats are destroyed and species of animals are lost ... sometimes forever. In war people are taught to hate and ethnic, racial and cultural differences are used to construct the image of the enemy. In war the whole wide world is turned upside down.

Unfortunately war remains a feature of the human landscape. At the present, there is war, or ethnic armed conflict, or religiously motivated extremism or politically motivated violence on nearly every continent. It is not hard to imagine the incredible hardship and real human suffering that is a consequence of this violence.  Though there have been moral, political and spiritual leaders from nearly every culture and religious tradition that have spoken out against war we seem all too ready to resort to it. Many live in fear that some time in the future we will once again find ourselves faced with war on a global scale and the real possibility of total annihilation.

 Milton Leitenberg, of the Center for International and Security Studies, in a 2003 paper, estimated that in the last century some 216 million people lost their lives around the world as a result of war and politically rooted violence. The question for us now in this century is have we sufficiently learned of the futility of war to settle our differences, right evident wrongs and bring about change? The present state of things would suggest that we haven't.

The time is now to begin to look deeper into the causes of war and political violence and determine that we can create a web of human existence that makes war and political violence obsolete.

Some of the Causes of War and Political Violence

• Culture of violence
• Globalization
• Competition for environmental resources
• Colonialism and neo-colonialism
• Racial, ethnic, religious and gender intolerance
• Gender injustice

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