The past centuries have been characterized by violence in huge scale which has sparked debates as to whether this trend is still present in modern times. In the first half of the twentieth century, both the first and second world war led to the death of millions of people. On the other hand, the recent decades have not seen wars in such a scale, but instead, violence is still present in different parts of the world; Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and DRC being among the countries that still experience the wrath of violence. There are other forms of violent activities, like public executions, homicide and human sacrifice. All of which may be argued to be lesser in the recent decade than in olden days. The report below intends to demonstrate why the world has become less violent in the recent decade.
Analysis
Method
There are a number of things that can be used to determine whether violence has really reduced in recent times or escalated. To come up with these factors, this report looked into various viewpoints of different scholars. The findings are given below;
Findings
The arguments below back the claim or viewpoint of modern world being more peaceful than the past;
Research carried out by Uppsala and Oslo institute shows a downward trend of worldwide battle death, in the last five decades, particularly, beginning from the end of the Second World War.
The seemingly huge scale wars in Iraq and Syria fall short in magnitude or rather death rates to the one experienced in First and Second World Wars.
The per-capita death, one way of measuring the average death of every country, reduced to about tenfold as from the Second World War stretching to Korean War (Kaldor, 2013). In the same reduction trend, it went down further by hundredfold towards the mid two thousand.
Historians note that towards the end of the 20th century, there has been a considerable decline in the number of mass killings, genocides and homicides (Sarkees, Wayman, and Singer, 2003, pp.49-70).
In addition, political scientists have kept on recording and monitoring the trend in violence or aspects of violence like wars in all their forms in recent years. These include but are not limited to war among nations, nations and military groups or organizations and civil wars (Goldstein, 2011). The result, noted by scholars such as Joshua Goldstein, was that these wars were surprisingly decreasing in number and frequency, from Second World War towards the two thousand years.
Another important thing that has been noted in recent decades is that powerful nations have not been confronting one another in the battlefield, but rather, supported proxy wars in many of small nations in form of civil wars or uprising. The proxy wars are less violent, in terms of the number deaths, as compared to two powerful nations facing each other.
The wrings of scholars from other fields, particularly, the Harvard based Psychologist Steven Pinker, whose book titled, “Why Violence Has Declined”, is also of the view, based on statistics and historical facts, that the world is becoming more peaceful, and thus, less violent in recent decade (Pinker, 2011).
Discussion
The findings above demonstrate that it is not at all crazy to argue that the recent decade has become less violent than olden days. There are a number of reasons that scholars attribute to this gradual decline in violence in the world. These reasons include;
Improved education and literacy
Spread of Democracy
The spread of international trade
The rise of the United Nations
To start with, the United Nations, they have a mandate or rather, a responsibility to ensure there are peace and stability in the world. The organization, which consists of all countries of the world as member states, has significantly reduced the number of conflict in most parts of the world (Walt, 1998, pp.29-46). A good example is in Ivory Coast, where the UN intervened after a disputed election caused political instability. The end result of UN intervention was the establishment of peace and stability under a new regime (Peck, 1998, p. 45). This explains why there is less violence in the recent decades than in olden decades. One could argue that the spread of democracy is another factor that has contributed to the reduced violence in recent decades (Russett, 1994). Democratic governments are less likely to explain violence or plunge the country into anarchy, unlike authoritarian government which creates conducive environment for uprisings (Salmi, 2004, pp. 207-230). Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Communism, most countries have embraced democracy and helped solved any problem arising within the country in a manner that does not lead to bloodshed. Unlike in the past, during the Trans-Sahara and trans-Atlantic trade, international trade has replaced that form and has proved to be less violent than the two trades which were characterized by violence and loss of lives (Barbieri, 2002, p. 28). There is also the less military intervention of one state to another, save for US invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 19th and early 20th century saw a massive invasion of European powers into smaller countries in search of raw materials for their industries. This marked an era of great suffering and loss of lives. However, as a result of the formation of the UN, and spread of international trade, colonization has ceased to exist and this has significantly made the world less violent. Lastly, improved education and literacy in recent decades have made people more civilized and less likely to engage in violent activities (Gatrell, 1980, pp.238-337).
Recommendations
Scholars need to carry out further research to establish whether the existing wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan may escalate to be more violent, so as to correctly establish whether the world is becoming less violent or more violent.
Conclusion
The discussion above has demonstrated that there is sufficient evidence to show that in recent years, the world has experienced less violent activities than in the olden days. Some of the evidence to back this idea includes the absence of huge scale violence to match the two World Wars, reduction of mass killings and genocides among many other reasons. Although there are reasons that further stresses the argument of the world becoming more peaceful, it is important that to figure out the present wars as they turn out to be more violent than previous ones, hence, discrediting the idea of the recent past being more peaceful.
References
Barbieri, K., 2002. The liberal illusion: Does trade promote peace?. University of Michigan Press.
Gatrell, V.A., 1980. The decline of theft and violence in Victorian and Edwardian England. Crime and the law: the social history of crime in Western Europe since, 1500, pp.238-337.
Goldstein, J.S., 2011. Winning the war on war: The decline of armed conflict worldwide. Penguin.
Kaldor, M., 2013. New and old wars: Organised violence in a global era. John Wiley " Sons.
Peck, C., 1998. Sustainable peace: The role of the UN and regional organizations in preventing conflict. Rowman " Littlefield.
Pinker, S., 2011. The better angels of our nature: A history of violence and humanity. Penguin.
Russett, B., 1994. Grasping the democratic peace: Principles for a post-Cold War world. Princeton university press.
Salmi, J., 2004. Violence, democracy and education: an analytic framework. In Suffer The Little Children (pp. 207-230). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Sarkees, M.R., Wayman, F.W. and Singer, J.D., 2003. Inter-state, intra-state, and extra-state wars: A comprehensive look at their distribution over time, 1816–1997. International Studies Quarterly, 47(1), pp.49-70.
Walt, S.M., 1998. International relations: one world, many theories. Foreign policy, pp.29-46.
