degrees of militarization
Development. For many economists, development has been synonymous with economic
growth, seen as the secular expansion in the level of aggregate economic income or output,
typically measured by GNP or GDP. But I think it is important to distinguish between this kind of growth, which says nothing in particular about whether the material wellbeing of the broad
mass of the population is increasing, and development, with its connotations of improvement in
the quality of life.
Peace. The narrowest definition of peace is that it is simply the absence of war. But real peace
is more than that. A person who is not able to go about the ordinary business of life without
the constant threat of murderous violence, whether from uniformed soldiers, ragged rebel
forces, terrorists, or ordinary criminals cannot be said to be living in a state of peace.
Johan Galtung referred to the absence of war as “negative peace.” But Galtung argued that
there was a richer, more complex meaning of peace, “positive peace.” For it is not bullets and
bombs alone that kill and maim people. There is also such a thing as “structural violence”,
violence that is built into the structure of political, social and economic systems. People who
die of malnutrition in a world with more than enough food; who are blinded, crippled or killed
by preventable diseases; who are subject to torture and abuse; who become the targets of
vicious crimes committed by desperate, marginalized people — these are not the victims of war.
They are the victims of structural violence. Yet they are just as damaged, just as dead as those
we count as war casualties. Positive peace is more than just the absence of war. It is the
presence of decency.
Militarization. Militarization is a process by which military values are exalted and military
institutions become dominant in a society. Military values emphasize obedience to authority,
loyalty, forceful and aggressive behavior, and the threat and use of violence as a means of
settling disputes and achieving objectives. Military institutions can become dominant by
directly seizing and wielding political power. Even the credible threat of taking such action is
sometimes enough to keep civilian authorities under de-facto military control.
Of course, there are many degrees of militarization. But it is important to emphasize that the
mere possession of a military, even a large and well-funded military, does not by itself establish
that a society is militarized. The degree of militarization of a society is positively related to the
degree to which military values are emphasized in the culture, and negatively related to the
extent to which civilian political authorities are not only formally, but also actively and
effectively in control of military commanders and forces.
War. Finally, war is not just a rhetorical term for a determined struggle against something, as in
Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty”, George W. Bush’s “war on terrorism”, or the infamous
and ongoing “war on drugs.” War is a brutal and deadly manifestation of mass organized
violence.