Concept of war and conseqences it leaves behind Essay

Concept of war and conseqences it leaves behind - Essay Example The concept of war was thus initially related, in international law, to the delimitation of the penal jurisdiction of States to prosecute and punish, rather than to the definition of the incriminated acts and the attendant penalties. This latter task was left to municipal law, and more particularly to military codes. Except for a few occasional points of contact, a full-fledged partnership between military and economic science was not established until the First World War. In outstanding works on military strategy like that of Clausewitz, the economic complements to warfare are not even mentioned. To make it applicable to our time, however, his famous statement that war is but a continuation of politics through other methods might very well be rephrased. Today it seems equally reasonable to say that modern warfare is largely a continuation of economic policies through other methods. For thousands of years there was only an indirect connection between the economic system and the method of warfare. The ends of war were frequently economic, as when men fought to win tribute or slaves, and certain consequences of war, such as starvation and devastation, had economic significance as well.