The Inexplicability Of War

How do psychologists explain warfare? I have a vague idea that they might talk about Man's inherent violent disposition, but I don't really know. Furthermore, when I wanted to educate myself on the subject with The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology, to my surprise, I found no entry on the subject of war. Yet the literature of warfare is, of course, huge. Historians, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, economists, military strategists, as well as many other writers of both fact and fiction have written a great deal about armed conflicts and their causes. Nevertheless, and in spite of my own personal war experience, I view wars as an absurd phenomenon. As a political option organized violence does not make any sense. I could never really understand how humans can kill other human beings, randomly, in haphazard manner, without any personal motives. After all soldiers on the warring sides are probably complete strangers to each other, people who never met before in their ordinary life and whom they slaughter nevertheless casually, without genuine wrath and anger, without any good or valid reason. However, I recognize that reality is complex and it transcends logic. Not all wars are the same. Unfortunately, some armed struggles are justified and necessary. Even as adamant a pacifist as the mathematician and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell had realised this at some point in his life. Russell underwent a total transformation in his attitude regarding armed conflicts. During the First World War he was imprisoned for his dedicated and uncompromising pacifism. However, when Hitler rose to power Russell understood that the Nazis could be stopped only by the force of the sword.