THE MILITARY AND THE THREAT OF FORCE: WHAT IS THE FUTURE ROLE OF THE MILITARY WITHIN AND BETWEEN STATES

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Ghazali Shafie

Abstract

I remember a little incident in 1945 as a field security officer in the Allied Forces. I confronted a Japanese Officer immediately after the Japanese surrender. I asked him as to why the Japanese soldiers were so cruel and, even inhuman in their behaviour during the war; now after their defeat they had become very meek and even polite. His reply was simply, 'War is not for humans'. Since then, I had been wondering whether there was wisdom or a message in the statement. I thought of the behaviour of humans from the Kesasul Ambia and the Old Testament about the two brothers quarrelling or and one became the victim by the other who used a piece of stone. But that was not war, only two humans one with etreme jealousy, greed and super selfishness. War was something different. It had to have a collection of men. It has to be a clash of forces as occurring during the palaeolithic age when groups of men under a leadership using crude implements fighting for turf, food or women. Later, I reflected on what Machiavelli had said on hatred and dissensions. Then, I saw humans improving their weapons and the science of war but war was always theirs with a cause such as migration or conquest of lands.

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