Introduction
Warfare has been central in the history of human beings. Humans have fought each other for millennia for reasons ranging from economic to ideological to personal. Warfare has been central to the development and progress of society, as discussed by Francis Fukuyama, despite being catastrophic for human lives. It helped create the tax system, bureaucracy, new technologies, and the unified state itself.
Warfare has evolved over the course of history. From its tools to the way it is fought, warfare has been gradually changed over time. In tribal societies, warfare was limited with regard to its size and weapons. Then, post-agricultural revolution, with the formation of large states, large, organized, trained, and weaponized militaries dominated, and in the 20th century, technology took the lead and led us to the weapons of mass destruction. Humans are continuing on this path, and in the 21st century, with revolutionary technological advancements, AI, and now quantum computers, humans are creating weapons that are far more lethal and precise, which has changed the course of warfare.
Change in Warfare
Warfare has seen a dramatic change in attitude towards it. Before the second millennium, warfare was brutal and violent. It allowed the pillaging of civilian villages, towns, and cities. Civilians were killed, raped, and tortured during warfare with occasional calls for restraint. Then, starting in the second millennium, especially post-enlightenment and with the rise of liberalism, the idea of protecting civilians during war started to take root in society, which was finally codified in the 19th and 20th centuries with a broad consensus, like the Geneva Conventions.
Liberalism led humans to value human life, and by virtue of it, we saw one of the most peaceful eras of human history. The era from the end of the Cold War in the 1990s to the 2010s has been termed as the most peaceful era in terms of large-scale interstate warfare and global violence by some prominent writers like Yuval Noah Harari and Steven Pinker. Liberalism believes in the sanctity of human life, that all humans are equal, and that everyone should have equal rights and liberties. It brought the individual human to the forefront of society.
Liberalism in Retreat
However, in the past decade or so, modern liberalism has faced a downfall. With the rise of populist movements across the world, the classical liberal values are sidelined, and a more conservative and hard-line approach is adopted. It is especially evident in the warfare across the world, where the core tenet of liberalism, that all humans are equal and have equal rights, is challenged.
Recent wars and brief military exchanges between countries have shown little respect and value for human life. From the Russia-Ukraine war to Israel’s war on Palestine (the UN calls Israel’s war in Gaza unlawful, as evidenced by the ICJ verdict against Netanyahu) to the India-Pakistan skirmish to the Iran-Israel war, all have targeted civilians, made possible with the precise technology of drones and missiles. This, apart from technology, has been an ideological shift in the approach to warfare. The idea that all lives are equal and have equal rights to live is now being challenged based on the boundaries within which you operate and the ideology you follow.
People are being killed without any viability or reason. Israel is killing Palestinians based on ideology and on the back of populist leaders like Netanyahu, claiming supposed military purposes. They attacked Iran’s civilian population without any viable threat or cause. There was no reason at all to target civilian buildings, as they offered no economic or warfare advantage apart from trying to instigate fear and a response from Iran, which it did. In the Russia-Ukraine war, the case is similar, although the dynamics of that war are different. Even in the skirmish between India and Pakistan, civilians were targeted and killed.
New Global Consensus
Now, civilians have always been harmed during warfare, and it’s not something new. What makes this an entirely new chapter in warfare is the global acceptance of the loss of human life by precise targeting. Humans are no longer considered equal; the lives on the other side of the line or those who don’t ideologically align with you, are not considered equally important; they can be killed and harmed, as in the case of Palestine.
The world remains silent, and a consensus appears to be forming on targeting civilians. And now, this phenomenon is expanding and more and more nations are using it to their advantage, like India in the case of Kashmir and Muslims, and Donald Trump in his purge on immigrants. This suggests the failure of the global liberal order, as human life is no longer valuable and equally important.
Causes of Failure of Liberalism
The failure of classical liberalism is due to multiple reasons. Firstly, it is due to what can be called the “woke liberalism,” which has taken a far-leftist approach to human issues, emphasizing gender and identity over universal individual rights, and is drifting away from reality. Instead of focusing on issues and open debates around human rights and liberties and the sanctity of human life, it has shifted its entire focus to gender, identity, speech, language, and mortality.
It has created a vacuum where people feel far from reality, which makes the populist agenda much more relevant as it attends to those real issues. Secondly, the rise of populism itself has contributed to the fall of liberalism. Populist leaders have filled the vacuum left by liberalism by attending to the issue of the masses and using it to gain power. They have called out the woke culture of liberalism, which has attracted people, allowing them to prosper and run their agenda behind the populist narratives.
Thirdly, with the rise of populism, conservative ideologies, which had long shaped human lives, have retaken root in society as people feel connected with them, and leaders have been able to exploit them and use them to their advantage. We can see this in the rise of populist leaders like Netanyahu, who has used war for his political gains.
Conclusion
All this has led to the fall of classical liberalism, and along with it, the idea that all humans are equal. Warfare has changed, civilians are being targeted, and there is a global acceptance of it, which is largely due to the fall of classical liberalism. Humanity is going down a path of destruction, and there is no stopping.
Liberalism needs to reinvent itself; it needs to connect with people and talk on the material issues of humans like housing, unemployment, inflation, food insecurity, poverty, and wealth inequality without losing its moral stances on universal individual rights. Otherwise, we would be left to populist forces who will fill the vacuum and lead us to a place where humanity would be doomed.
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The views and opinions expressed in this article/paper are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Paradigm Shift.
Araiz Imdad graduated in political science. He writes on democracy, sustainability, and techno-optimism.