War as a Means of Resolving International Disputes

War is a means of resolving, through force, political, economic, or territorial disputes that words have failed to settle. When diplomacy collapses and political negotiation produces no results, war becomes the instrument through which states attempt to resolve the controversy. In this sense, war is the continuation of politics, and politics is the art of reconciling conflicting interests within a shared framework. However, when external powers impose peace without the dispute having been resolved—neither through dialogue nor through force—an unstable condition arises. A peace that does not represent the resolution of the underlying controversy serves only to create the conditions for a subsequent and potentially greater war.