Three Theories of War

Three Theories of War were advanced by writers of histories in the mid-4th century in Themiclesia, seeking to explain the origin of warfare which were almost a fact of life amongst the Themiclesian states of the day. Amongst the few things scholars of the day agreed upon is the idea that to understand the origin of war is the first step to end war as a phenomenon once and for all.

The three theories are:

• Disobedience
• Greed
• Power

Disobedience

The disobedience theory was summarized by Lord Kur (d. 322) as follows. In the beginning of the world, the Demiurge instituted the natural order of the world, and as long as the world kept to this order, there was no conflict of any kind. But because humanity disobeyed, disorder led to further disorder, and eventually disorder between states manifests as warfare. Writers of this school therefore tended to describe the cause of each conflict as some type of deviation from rectitude.

The chief counterargument to the disobedience theory is practical rather than theoretical: the natural order of the world has never been discovered, and so there seems to be no path to approach its restoration. Further, if the Demiurge could not restrain humanity to this natural order, it seems ludicrous to imagine mere humans could compel the same.

Greed

The theory of greed argues that warfare is fundamentally no different from theft and burglaries and represent an effort by one city to rob what belongs to another city.