This response to the proposition shall focus upon four broad areas within the causes of war. Firstly, it will be necessary to speak of necessary causes of war, as these feature heavily in the literature on war causation. The discussion will then move on to questioning whether or not it is simply human nature that yearns to constantly fight aggressive wars. Then it shall be necessary to address those permissive cause of war which is a notable feature of the world in which we live, before finally outlining the different forms of misperception that are often a crucial instigator for war.

Blame can be placed on citizens, politicians and the media for not adequately fulfilling their democratic role. However, each relies on each other in such a way that makes a healthy democracy impossible if one does not function adequately. Put differently: citizens, politicians and the media are to blame for the crisis in democracy.

Machiavelli’s political thought, transcends the levels of good and evil, and yet also embraces the notion of just political rule. In that sense, Machiavelli is indeed an amoral political thinker, though not on the basis of his expounding evil, but of his conception of the proper relationship between virtù, fortuna, and political statecraft.

Cyber aggression can constitute an act of war if it is violent, political and instrumental. Thus, although cyber war has not yet occurred it is likely to in the future.

Max Weber’s concept of legitimate authority rests on three principal pillars: tradition; legality; ideology. In this essay, I propose a fourth pillar – power, and show how it can be as important a source of legitimacy as tradition, legality, and ideology. In asserting that power itself can be politically legitimating, I do not imply that it is devoid of any support from the other three pillars.