Some modern -ology: Peace and War

"War resembles disease primarily because it has threatened or brought physical damage or death to large populations. Thus, the yearbook of world health statistics, published by the World Health Organization (1976), includes "injury resulting from operations of war" in its list of 150 cause of death. War's opposite--peace--is like the opposite of disease--health--in that it implies the preservation and extension of human life.

The traditional view of war, like that of disease, related the supernatural and natural orders.

Modern African warfare still incorporates traditional war charms, rites of passage, and sorcery. It involves the spirit of a mystical community. Thus, in a symbolic novel about the Biafran war of secession, the Court of the Here-After hears that millions of men have died "in the dignity of kinship." "Yes," says the prosecuting Counsel for Damnation, "death is indeed an exercise in pan-Africanism. We have been known to kill each other partly because we belong to each other. We kill each other because we are neighbors."

Peace science has not yet advanced to the point of professional practice. Although the military claim that "peace is our profession," the primary emphasis of the contemporary peace movement is still religious, its leaders, figures like Ghandi and Martin Luther King. A more comprehensive peace profession, supported by a firm knowledge base in peace science, is still a hope rather than a reality."

The Epidemiology of Peace and War
Francis A. Beer
International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Mar., 1979), pp. 45-86
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The International Studies Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2600274