War and Social Theory: Into Battle with Classes, Nations and States

Abstract

It would be easy to polemicise against ‘orthodox sociology’s’ shameful neglect of war; to lament the paucity of sociology’s contribution to the most urgent social problem of our time — peace; and to deride the naive, pacific optimism of the ‘classic theorists’ whose writings form the theoretical core of our own education and that of our students. But the neglect may now be over. Recently sociology has been paying more attention to war and peace; while the surrounding political and cultural climate has changed more radically. In the ‘Star Wars’ programmes — I do not mean the fantasy version by Ronald Reagan, but the real one by George Lucas — whole planets can be destroyed by a single weapons system. Today both adults and children recognise that as contemporary reality. This is paralleled by the more surreptitious growth of chemical weapons, persuading many commentators that the world may soon end, not with a bang but with a blister. If sociology has anything useful to say, it will have a large and receptive audience.