As we honor our veterans and celebrate the 105th anniversary of the end of the “War to End All Wars,” it is instructive to recognize the centrality of war in the international realm. 

From the Middle East to the bloody battlefields of Ukraine to the Korean Peninsula to the killing fields of Africa’s Great Lakes region to the powder keg of the South China Sea, the world continues to experience seemingly intractable, organized violence. Starting in the Middle East, the current conflagration between Hamas and Israel is but the latest chapter in a long-running book of hatred. From a historical perspective, there is no shortage of blame to go around for the violence in the Holy Land. While Hamas is clearly at fault for writing the opening paragraph of this bloody chapter, Israel’s unfolding efforts to destroy Hamas will likely ensure the book will not end with this war. 

In Ukraine, Russia has returned to its tsarist, imperialist roots in an attempt to subjugate a Slavic neighbor. Whether out of fear of a blossoming democracy on his border, or in an attempt to burnish his legacy as a great Russian ruler, or as payback for NATO’s post-Cold War expansion, Vladimir Putin’s sanguinary “might makes right” war continues to reverberate across the Old World, evincing memories of the two world wars of the first half of the 20th century.

In Korea, although the armistice from 1953 has maintained a status quo for 70 years, calling it peace would be a stretch. The regime in North Korea continues to rattle the geopolitical cages by testing cruise, ballistic and even hypersonic missiles, often in the direction of its historic enemy (and close American ally) Japan. Furthermore, the country’s enigmatic leader, Kim Jong Un, recently met with Putin in Russia’s far east to ostensibly agree on supplying North Korean munitions to the Red Army for use in the war against Ukraine.  

In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a witches’ brew of rebel groups continues to wreak havoc on a region that only 15 years ago witnessed the end of the Second Congo War, which caused more than 5 million deaths, mostly among the civilian population. The underlying sources of the conflict, flamed by cynical political forces in surrounding countries, remain unresolved. 

Meanwhile, China has recently issued a new map, known as the 10-dash line, of the South China Sea in which Taiwan manifestly resides in Chinese territorial waters. The previous map, the nine-dash line, put China on a collision course with several littoral states in the region, primarily Vietnam and the Philippines. The inclusion of Taiwan under the most-recent map definitively spotlights China’s ultimate goal of bringing Taipei back under Beijing’s control, by force if necessary.

It is important to note that the United States is not an innocent bystander and is, in fact, involved in most of these conflicts through overt support to Ukraine and Israel, the stationing of nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea and growing military confrontation with China in East Asia. While we frequently claim to be a peace-loving nation, war is undeniably part of our collective DNA, as well. The common theme is that violence, mostly state-sponsored, remains a fundamental element of international relations, despite local, regional and global efforts to ameliorate the sources of these conflicts. As rapacious leaders across the globe wield violence as a means to political ends, the seeds of future conflicts will be sown, ensuring the tragic suffering of countless innocents for the foreseeable future. 

Robert Beck of Peterborough served for 30 years overseas with the United States government in embassies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He now teaches foreign policy classes at Keene State College’s Cheshire Academy for Lifelong Learning.