Second Balkan War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Second Balkan War - Essay Example It is always possible to look at past conflicts in detached and scientific spirit to arrive at objective lessens. The warning given by Toynbee (1948), civilizations die from suicide, not by murder is alarmingly relevant today. The Second Balkan War, which erupted in 1913, has been massive in its destruction, not only when the actual war took place, but also in the later conflicts triggered by the fragile nature of the peace treaties. The present day world torn between conflicting interests is on the brink of war all the time. The study of the strength and weakness of the strategies of Conflict Management of the Second Balkan war would aid our understanding of the present day conflict zones and might satisfactory solutions for managing conflict across the globe. Conflict management is as old as man. However, the false ideals of patriotism, unhealthy way of releasing it in war with other countries and pernicious theories of superiority of races helped only to whip up sentiments against the enemy and there was no attempt in scholarly circles to study the psychological springs of conflict. However, it is only recently that it has become a branch of academic discipline, which attracted serious scholarly pursuit across the globe. The early attempts in the 1960s were to explore the psychological aspects of conflict. The pioneering work some psychologists in fact offered a critique to the American theory of deterrence against the Soviet Union (Russell, 1961). The attention of the psychologists was shifting from rousing the feelings of people for war to raising their mind to explore the possibility for peace. As Morawski and Goldstein (1985) observed, these Cold War writings contrasted sharply with earlier publications on war and peace in several w ays: psychologists began to emphasize the prevention of war rather than preparations for war whereas previous research had attempted to document or generate public consensus with government policy, the new work was critical of U.S. foreign policies (p. 280). In the past there was a tendency to eulogize war even though it was negative in its destructive nature. More and more psychologists started exploring the possibility of peace. This resulted in the study of promotion of peace (Wagner, de Rivera, & Watkins, 1988). Peace was defined as an active construct, characterized by the co-operation between peoples and nations springing from the desire to satisfy the needs of the entire humanity. There is increasing number of different types of conflict like, ethnic (Sri Lanka), religious (Northern Ireland), and territory linked (India-Pakistan, Arab-Israeli) and political (Nepal). International conflicts have different dimensions and varying degrees of amiability to conflict management. Some conflicts are protracted (Azar, 1986). One of the unique features of these conflicts is the difficulty of managing them peacefully. The Second Balkan Wars The Second Balkan War was fought in 1913 between Bulgaria and its former allies in the First Balkan war, Greece and Serbia. Romania and the Ottoman Empire intervened against Bulgaria. The outcome of the war made Serbia, an ally of the Russian Empire, an important