Causes of War Quotes

“As Frederick the Great of Prussia is widely reputed to have said, “Diplomacy without force is like music without instruments.”
― William R. Thompson, Causes of War

“The actors are organizations, not individuals. Individuals do the actual fighting, but they fight on behalf of a larger collective political unit, under the direction and coordination of political and/or military leaders, to advance the goals of the collectivity, or at least of its leadership. An individual who acts on his own to kill a border guard, or who crosses a border to kill citizens of another political system, is not engaging in war. But if that individual is part of a political system’s formal military organization, and that military organization engages in a sustained campaign of violence against the military organization of another state or another organized group, we would call it a war.”
― William R. Thompson, Causes of War