544 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies N. 5 / 2015 HOW TO PREVENT SOCIAL CONFLICTS FROM BECOMING ARMED CONFLICTS INTRODUCTION The analysis of violence and warfare has remained a constant element within philosophy, a precursor to sociology. War is a philosophical concern for humankind since the impact that armed conflict may exert on the lives of those it affects can be radical.1 The history of humanity also encompasses very diverse positions and inference as to the reasons why humankind wages war, which are brandished by strategists and philosophers and more recently by sociologists and political scientists. Amongst the classics, we may recall that for Croesus, king of Lydia, war is a folly, one of whose outcomes is to increase the number of fathers who will have to bury their sons.2 Horace refers to the victors, whose joy is measured by the tears of mothers.3 Irrespective of the historical debate surrounding the possibility of preventing armed conflict,4 we concede that violence is not desirable. This is the very reason why the study of warfare and force has remained a constant throughout history. The armed conflicts of this day and age tend to catapult violence onto the civilian population in an attempt to produce a favourable outcome in the interests of those in charge. The Bosnian War provides us with a recent example of an armed conflict that did not exclusively consist of a conflict between conventional forces; it also entailed, moreover, the continued use of violence against civilians.5 This has become a constant in armed conflict over the past few decades.6 The study of warfare and violence is not merely of historical concern, it must be seen as a matter of urgency. 1 FRAGA IRIBARNE, Manuel. Guerra y Conflicto Social War and Social Conflict, Madrid, Instituto de Estudios Políticos, 1962, p IX. 2 Apud FRAGA. Ibid. pp 88-89. 3 QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS. Carmina, Odes I, p 1 Apud FRAGA ibíd. p 89. 4 FREUND, Julien. Sociologie du Conflit, Madrid, EME Publications Service, 1995, ISBN 84- 7823-385-7, p 27. 5 KALDOR, Mary. New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, Barcelona, Tusquets, 2001 p.65-80. 6 STEPANOVA, Ekaterina. “Trends in armed conflicts” en SIPRI Year Book 2008: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security New York, Oxford University Press, 2008 p 44-45. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
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