A-Z of IR: W is for 'War' and X is for 'X article (socialism vs capitalism)'

Inspired by the British Academy’s focus on Engaging the Public with Humanities and the Social Sciences (2023), in October 2024, Adrian Gallagher (Leeds) launched an A-Z in International Politics online and free of charge. This 26 part series over 26 weeks introduces key concepts such as A is for Anarchy, B for Balance of Power, C for Cooperation and so forth. They are released on Instagram (Prof_Politics), TikTok (Professor_Politics), LinkedIn, and YouTube (@ProfessorGallagher). 

Last month alone this series generated more than 64,000 views and 3500 interactions on Instagram and 8000 views on TikTok. Over the last few months YouTube has had over 1000 views, and LinkedIn around 10,000 views. In total there has been over half a million views across all social media platforms since the conception of this series. 

This week we look at the letters 'W' and 'X'.

W is for 'War'

While we might not be living in a World War, we are currently a World at War. What does this mean for us as humankind, should we be fearful as we move away from international conflict towards civil, inter-state conflict? 

When looking at the nature of global conflict, there are often less than five inter-state wars annually. However, when looking at civil wars, inter-state conflict not involving any foreign actor, there can be up to 50 annually. Including foreign actor involvement and that number can rise as high as 60. Are civil wars the biggest danger to our world order?

There are three main points to examine when looking at global conflict.

The first is that the threat of big war between governments is relatively small. For example, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, while they can have high death tolls and mass devastation to multiple countries, they are sporadic and take place infrequently. Instead, we see a resurgence of civil wars, which are becoming more complex as there is an increase in foreign actors involvement. Secondly, we have to look at Armed groups, which have become a global phenomenon. For example, in Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic we saw between ten and thousands on armed conflict groups playing a heavy role in the crises. Myanmar alone saw 2,600 armed groups fighting their brutal military regime. Finally, we have to talk about the mass impact War has on humankind through displacement and destruction. There are around 100 million people who have been displaced globally as a result of War, and the United Nations further claim that around 290 million people around the world require some form of humanitarian assistance. 

While it would be easy to fear war, it is important to stress that the death toll now as a result of war is far less than the impact of World Wars in the 20 century. Comparing tens of thousands of deaths to tens of millions, it might be better that we are currently living in a World at War rather than a World War. 

X is for 'X article (socialism vs capitalism)'

Capitalism, socialism, the ‘policy of containment’ in the Cold War and everything in between, X is for article. 

Taking it back to 22 February 1946 with George F Kennan sat in Moscow. It is important to note that the telegram he sends back to Washington contains three very important dimensions. 

The first is his perception on the threat the USSR poses to the US. He reflects on a speech given by Stalin in 1927, in which Stalin split the world into the capitalist centre and the socialist centre and argued the conflict between the two centres would shape the future of the world. Kennan goes on to warn the US in 1946 that this conflict still plays heavily on the USSR’s political elites minds. The second dimension is Kennan’s perception on how the USSR will tackle this conflict. He states they will portray the rest of the world as an ‘evil enemy’ to justify increasing military expenditure at home. They will infiltrate private organisations and the media to secretly destroy the Western way of life from within. Lastly, how does Kennan argue the US should approach this situation? He states the USSR’s world view is incorrect, that capitalist and socialist states can live side by side in harmony. That the US must navigate this correctly and tactically to avoid a large global conflict. The US must play the ‘long game’ to achieve this, watching out to counter expansionist moves made by the USSR. 

Looking at Kennan's musings from a 2025 perspective, he brings up two other interesting points. The first being his attitude to how capitalist states looks after their own and the importance of this. People must be rewarded within a capitalist society so they don’t look elsewhere. Leading liberal capitalists like Francis Fukuyama agree with this, warning that capitalism has not addressed extreme wealth inequality and this causes serious problems. After the 2008 Financial crisis there should have been a rise in left wing populism and addressing inequalities but instead, we saw a rise in right wing populism and identity politics. Secondly, Kennan argued that we need a united West. The USSR facing one country looks strong, but facing an entire united body it looks weaker. Does Trump need to be reminded of this point as he continues to break apart this unity? 

Photo by Robert Stump on Unsplash