6.4. PEACE, WAR AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

6.4. PEACE, WAR AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

6.4.1

Vocabulary

Where do they work? Fill in the table.

	Consulate	Embassy	Ministry	Official residence	Palace	Parliament	United Nations
Ambassador
Consul
Diplomat
Emperor
Foreign Minister
Foreign Secretary (Britain)
Secretary of State (USA)
Secretary General
Head of state
King/Queen
President
Prime Minister

Practice

Fill in the blanks with words from this exercise and

and exercise A. The first letter is given to help you.

Emeria today recalled its a____1____ from Darda ‘for consultation’ after a b___2____ incident in which Dardan troops crossed into Northern Emeria. Carlo Fredericks, Emeria’s f______3______, on a visit to the United Nations, said that unless Dardan soldiers stopped the incursions into his country’s territory the government of P______4 ______ Bandrikarta would have to think seriously about retaliation.

P___5__ Silvia Ngobole of Darda, speaking from the p___6___ in Fallo, her c__7___’s capital, blamed members of the Emerian armed forces for the incidents, saying they had provoked the Dardan troops. She warned Emeria that any use of force would be met by e___8___ force from her own soldiers. As tension mounts in the r___9____ Maria Richardson, S______ 10_____ of the United Nations has invited both s___11___ to b___12___ talks at the UN h___13____.

Word Form

Bilateral means ‘two-sided’. What words would

you use for the following?

a. a decision you take on your own, whether or not other people agree (e.g. _____ action, _____ disarmament)

b. something done with three groups (e.g. ______ talks, ______ arms agreement)

c. something done with a lot of groups (e.g. _______ disarmament, ______ talks, _____ peace-keeping force)

Give more examples with the same prefixes.

6.4.2

Meaning

Read the two descriptions. Find in the text the

equivalents to the sentences below.

DARDA exports beans and rice and imports just about everything else. There is a serious trade imbalance between it and its partners (including Emeria). Darda has asked for foreign aid to help it deal with the current food shortage.

Amnesty International has detailed widespread abuse of human rights, including imprisonment without trial. There are allegations of torture.

The Emerian government has asked the United Nations to impose economic sanctions on its neighbour because of its human rights record and because of the problems at the border.

EMERIA enjoys good relations with its trading partners, but it has no oil and has to depend on other countries for its supply. Recently it has asked the World Bank for a loan of 250 million dollars to help it rebuild its industrial capacity.

There are many so-called political prisoners in Emeria and the death penalty exists for many crimes (including subversion against the state). But there is no real evidence of torture or imprisonment without trial.

A faction in the country (the Emerian People’s Liberation Army) has recently taken three Western journalists as hostages in their campaign for independence for the northern province of Kasmul.

help (often money) from other countries
suggestions that people have been physically harmed to get information from them
people who are kept prisoner so that they can be exchanged for money or other things
people in prison because of what they say or think
sells things to other countries
the conditions of freedom, safety, etc, which everybody should have
the stopping of trade with a country because you don’t like its policies
buys things from other countries
an unequal level between countries which sell to each other

Activate

Complete the sentences with words from part A.

We are going to stop ________ oil now that we have discovered that we have our own fields.
The government’s first act was the release of all ______ ______ who had been arrested because they disagreed with the policies of the ex-president.
After the invasion the world community imposed ______ ______ on the aggressive nation.
We have managed to ______ coal to Darda even though they have coal themselves.
They need _____ _____ if they are to survive the cold winter.
The ______ ______ record of the last government was appalling. People were regularly imprisoned and tortured.

Collocation

Which noun phrases go with which verb

phrases, either as subjects or objects?

Tick the correct boxes.

	a treaty	a cease-fire	war	talks	a country	diplomatic relations
break down
invade
declare
break off
sign
restore
agree to

Which one verb can’t take an object?

Practice

Write a paragraph placing the events from the

table in a logical order. Begin with the sentence:

Diplomatic relations between the two countries was broken off a year ago.

6.4.3

Word Choice

Find out the difference between the following pairs

of words. Put them in the correct sentences.

a. a rebellion – a riot

b. a rebellion – a revolution

c. a protest – a demonstration

d. a civil war – a guerrilla war

e. a revolution – a coup

f. a battle – a war

g. autonomy – independence

1. _______ means having the right to run your own affairs in your own part of a country; ______ is the status of complete freedom from others’ control.

2. A ______ is an uprising against any central authority; a ______ is the successful changing of a government (and the political direction of the country) by force.

3. A ______ is any peaceful act that shows extreme displeasure; a _______ usually involves a large number of people marching with banners to show (peacefully) their support or displeasure.

4. A ______ is an uprising or fight against any central authority; a ______ is an incident when a crowd gets wildly and violently out of control.

5. A ______ is the successful changing of a government (and the political direction of the country) by force; a ______ is the sudden seizing of power from the government by an unelected small (armed) group.

6. A ______ is a fight between the armed forces of two enemies; a ______ is a prolonged period of armed fighting between two countries.

7. A _____ is a war in which two opposing groups from the same country enter into conflict with each other; a ______ is when a (usually) small unofficial group carries out repeated small attacks on the government or the main official force.

Interaction

Give each of these words a score from 1 to 5,

according to whether the speaker feels positive

[1-2], neutral [3], or negative [4-5] about the

person they are describing.

Read the following information about an attack in Emeria. In

groups render this story in one of the following ways:

a. as an Emerian government report

b. as an article from the EPLA paper

c. as an article from a foreign newspaper

In Emeria two men from the EPLA (Emerian People’s Liberation Army) attacked a government army camp. They blew up an ammunition dump. Government troops counter-attacked and a gun battle developed. In the fighting a schoolhouse was set on fire causing the death of the teacher and three of the children. The attackers were killed after twenty-five minutes.

The EPLA want independence for the province of Kasmul. They have launched a full-scale rebellion against Prime Minister Brandikarta, in spite of the fact that Emeria is still involved in a full-scale rebellion against Darda.

Word Use

Read the text of a speech by Maria Richardson,

Secretary General of the United Nations, about

the conflict between Emeria and Darda. Complete

the sentences below with words from the text.

‘I believe that unless the two parties sit round a negotiating table there will be no chance of resolving this dispute. I know that tension is high but we have to pray that the cease-fire will hold, at least until peace negotiations can start.

There are problems of disputed territory between Emeria and Darda, and I know that both sides have made statements that they will not surrender anything that they have won, but I have to say that unless there is some sign of compromise there will be many more funerals and much much more grief.

Emeria and Darda need to be at peace. They need to enter into a new relationship with each other, and when they do that I am sure that the trade boycott against the two countries will be lifted.’

I want to _______ this dispute agreeably.
If the cease-fire ______ we can start preparing for peace ______.
The ______ territory belongs to us. We will never _______ it.
I’m sure that sanctions will be _______ now that the government has abandoned its repressive policies.
If we can stop the fighting there is a chance that our country can ______ into a new relationship with yours.

6.4.4

Reading

Read the text and answer the following questions.

Learn the words in bold.

The Roots of War

It can never be proved, but it is a safe assumption that the first time five thousand male human beings were ever gathered together in one place, they belonged to an army. That event probably occurred around 7000 BC – give or take a thousand years – and it is an equally safe bet that the first truly large-scale slaughter of people in human history happened very soon afterwards.

The first army almost certainly carried weapons no different from those that hunters had been using on animals and on each other for thousands of years previously – spears, knives, axes, perhaps bows and arrows. Its strength didn’t lie in mere numbers; what made it an army was organization and discipline. The multitude of men obeyed a single commander and killed his enemies to achieve his goals. It was the most awesome concentration of power the human world had ever seen, and nothing except another army could hope to resist it.

The battle that occurred when two such armies fought has little in common with the clashes of primitive warfare. Thousands of men were crowded together in tight formations that moved on command and marched in step. Drill, practised over many days and months until it became automatic, is what transformed these men from a mob of individual fighters into an army. (The basic forms of military drill are among the most pervasive and unchanging elements of human civilization. The Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian armies of 1900 BC stepped off ‘by the left’, and so has every army down to the present day.)

And when the packed formations of well-drilled men collided on the forgotten battlefields of the earliest kingdoms, what happened was quite impersonal, though every man died his own death. It was not the traditional combat between individual warriors. The soldiers were pressed forward by the ranks behind them against the anonymous strangers in that part of the enemy line facing them, and though in the end it was pairs of individuals who thrust at each other with spears for a few moments before one went down, there was nothing personal in the exchange. ‘Their shields locked, they pushed, fought, killed, and died. There was no shouting, and yet not silence either, but rather such a noise as might be made by the angry clash of armed men.’

The result of such a merciless struggle in a confined place is killing on an unprecedented scale. Hundreds or thousands of men would die in half an hour, in an area no bigger than a couple of football fields. ‘The battle over, one could see on the site of the struggle the ground covered with blood, friend and foe lying dead on one another, shields broken, spears shattered and unsheathed swords, some on the ground, some fixed in corpses, some still held in the hands of the dead. It was now getting late, so they dragged the enemy corpses inside their lines, had a meal and went to rest.’

And the question we rarely ask, because our history is replete with such scenes, is, How could men do this? After all, in the tribal cultures from which we all come originally, they could not have done it. Being a warrior and taking part in a ritual battle with a small but invigorating element of risk is one thing; the mechanistic and anonymous mass slaughter of civilized warfare is quite another, and any traditional warrior would do the sensible thing and leave instantly. Yet civilized men, from 5000 BC or from today, will stay at such scenes of horror even in the knowledge that they will probably die within the next few minutes. The invention of armies required more than just working out ways of drilling large numbers of people to act together, although that was certainly part of the formula. A formation of drilled men has a different psychology – a controlled form of mob psychology – that tends to overpower the sense of personal identity and fears of the individuals that make it up.

We assume that people will kill if they find themselves in a situation where their own survival is threatened, and nobody needs lessons to learn how to die. What is less obvious is that practically anybody can be persuaded and manipulated in such a way that he will more or less voluntarily enter a situation wherein he must kill and perhaps die. Yet, if that were not true, battles would be impossible, and the civilization would have taken a different course (if indeed it arose at all).

The last words of the text show some doubt that the civilization could have arisen without wars. Do you agree with that? Why / Why not?
How did wars influence the development of the civilization?
Is the way a war is fought today different from the way it was fought 50, 100, 1000 years ago?
What forces soldiers to fight and die in battle?
What can the causes of wars be?
What wars are going on in the world now? How do they change the political situation? What results do they have?

6.4.5

Correction

Find and correct mistakes where necessary.

0. The object of war is to do peace.

0. The soldier sprang to attention.

make

__\/__

1. The terrorists planned to burst the bridge.

2. After the war, many enemy collaborators were arrested.

3. The Romans carried out the total destroy of Carthage.

4. How will the escaped prisoners get past the guardians?

5. The military have surrounded the building.

6. Members of the Special Services are highly trained.

7. Members of the Special Services are highly drilled.

8. The soldiers are drilled every morning on the parade ground.

9. Good war pensions should be paid to all the invalids.

10. Did Alexander the Great set out to defeat the world?

11. Who commanded the soldiers to fire?

12. A great power should have a large marine.

13. Every village has its own War Memorial.

14. The losing side always has to pay reparations.

15. I’m not a member of the armed powers.

16. When were you discharged from the army?

17. Few people oppose the execution of traitors.

18. The army have put a cord round the city.

19. It is defended for anyone to disobey orders.

6.4.6

Speaking

In groups choose either Emeria’s or Darda’s notes

(you must not look at the other delegation’s

information) and make up an official statement for

the peace negotiations. It should express your desire

for peace and your position on the territorial dispute

between your countries. Use words and phrases

from this unit.

DARDAN DELEGATION

You want peace because you simply can’t afford the war, and it has had a disastrous effect on your bean and rice crops, so now you are not exporting anything. There is a threat of economic sanctions. Anyway the Emerians appear to be winning.
You want to make sure that the Emerians admit their fault in invading your country. They must withdraw their troops right back behind their own borders.
If they do this you will undertake not to provoke any more incidents at the border between your two countries. You might (if they agree to your demands) agree to improve your human rights behaviours.

EMERIAN DELEGATION

After Darda kept provoking you by attacking your border guards you launched a full-scale invasion. You are now twenty miles inside Dardan territory.
You want to stop the war because it’s unpopular, because of the problems with the EPLA at home, and because the World Bank is threatening to withdraw foreign aid if you don’t.
You are prepared to give up most of the land you gained in exchange for peace guarantees from Darda. But you do want to keep a two-mile strip (of that twenty miles) for your own security. And they must admit that they started it.

6.4.7

Listening

Listen to the text and translate it. Study the counter-

arguments below.

‘Compulsory military service should be abolished in all countries’

Believe it or not, the Swiss were once a warlike people. There is still evidence of this. To this day, the guards at the Vatican are Swiss. But the Swiss discovered long ago that constant warfare brought them nothing but suffering and poverty. They adopted a policy of neutrality, and while the rest of the world seethed in turmoil, Switzerland, a country with hardly any natural resources, enjoyed peace and prosperity. The rest of the world is still not ready to accept this simple and obvious solution. Most countries not only maintain permanent armies but also require all their young men to do a period of compulsory military service. Everybody has a lot to say about the desirability of peace, but no one does anything about it. An obvious thing to do would be to abolish conscription everywhere. This would be the first step towards universal peace.

Some countries, like Britain, have already abandoned peacetime conscription. Unfortunately, they haven’t done so for idealistic reasons, but from a simple recognition of the fact that modern warfare is a highly professional business. In the old days, large armies were essential. There was strength in numbers; ordinary soldiers were cannon fodder. But in these days of intercontinental ballistic missiles, of push-button warfare and escalation, unskilled manpower has become redundant. In a mere two years or so, you can’t hope to train conscripts in the requirements and conditions of modern warfare. So why bother? Leave it to the professionals!

There are also pressing personal reasons to abolish conscription. It is most unpleasant in times of peace for young men to grow up with the threat of military service looming over their heads. They are deprived of two of the best and most formative years of their lives. Their careers and studies are disrupted and sometimes the whole course of their lives is altered. They spend at least two years in the armed forces engaged in activities, which do not provide them with any useful experience with regard to their future work. It can’t even be argued that what they learn might prove valuable in a national emergency. When they leave the services, young men quickly forget all the unnecessary information about warfare, which they were made to acquire. It is shocking to think that skilled and unskilled men are often nothing more than a source of cheap labour for the military.

Some people argue that military service ‘does you good’. ‘Two years in the army,’ you hear people say, ‘will knock some sense into him.’ The opposite is usually the case. Anyone would resent being pushed about and bullied for two years, all in the name of ‘discipline’. The military mind requires uniformity and conformity. People who do not quite fit into this brutal pattern suffer terribly and may even emerge with serious personality disorders. There are many wonderful ways of spending two years. Serving in the armed forces is not one of them!

The counter-argument: key words

* Aim of peacetime conscription: national defence.

* Insistence on conventional (not nuclear) warfare.

* Therefore possibility of nuclear warfare is reduced.

* Many examples of conventional warfare in recent times.

* Two years in armed forces provide valuable experience to men; help a young man to grow up.

* Valuable character training: stress on physical fitness, initiative, etc. A man can discover his abilities and limitations.

* Helps with careers: many opportunities to study.

* Helps qualified men to gain first experience in their careers (e.g. doctors, teachers, etc.)

* Old-fashioned disciplinary measures are not essential in modern armed services.

* Great spirit of comradeship: morale is high.

* Many facilities are available to servicemen for recreation, sports, etc.

* Opportunities to travel overseas (e.g. UN peace-keeping forces, etc.)

* Present-day defence arrangements are international: irresponsible for individual nations to opt out.

Vocabulary

Give the Russian for:

C Give the English for:

Practice

Complete the following word combinations:

1. suffering and _______

2. peace and __________

3. intercontinental ______

4. a national ___________

5. being pushed _______

6. uniformity and ______

7. abilities and ________

Synonyms

Give the words related to:

Opposites

Supply the words with opposite meaning:

6.4.8

Activate

Finish the sentences:

Unskilled manpower nowadays has become …
It is most unpleasant in times of peace for young men …
It can’t even be argued that …
In the army men are often nothing more than …
People are deprived of …
‘Two years in the army will …’
The military mind requires …

B Make up your own sentences with:

1. warfare

2. to seethe in turmoil

3. obvious solution

4. conscript

5. cannon fodder

6. to be pushed about and bullied

7. uniformity and conformity

6.4.9

Translation

Read the extract from a fiction book. What

psychological and behavioural problems can the

necessity to use a gun create?

‘His name’s Spencer Grant’, David said. ‘No middle name. At 18, out of high school, he joined the army’.

‘High IQ, equally high motivation’, Nella Shire said. ‘He applied for special forces training Army Rangers’.

‘He left the army after 6 years’, David said, passing another printout to Roy. ‘Used his service benefits to go to UCLA’.

‘Majored in criminology’.

‘Minored in criminal psychology’, said Davis. ‘Went to school year round, kept a heavy class load, got a degree in 3 years.’

‘Young man in a hurry’, Wertz said, ‘Apparently so they would remember that he was part of the team and would not, accidentally, step on him and crash him like a bug.’

As Davis handed Roy another page, Nella Shire said, ‘Then he applied to the LA Police Academy. Graduated at the top of his class’.

‘One day, after less than a year on the street’, Davis said, ‘he walked into the middle of carjacking in progress. Two armed men. They saw him coming, tried to take the woman motorist hostage.’

‘He killed them both’, Shire said. ‘The woman wasn’t scratched’.

‘Grant was crucified?’

‘No. Everyone felt these were righteous shootings’.

Glancing at another page that David handed to him, Roy said, ‘According to this, he was transferred off the street.’

‘Grant has computer skills and high aptitude’, Davis said, ‘so they put him on a computer-crime task force. Strictly deskwork’.

Roy frowned. ‘Why? Was he traumatized by the shootings?’

‘Some of them can’t handle it’, Wertz said knowingly. ‘They don’t have the right stuff, don’t have the stomach for it, they just come apart.’

‘According to the records from his mandatory therapy sessions’, Nella Shire said, ‘he wasn’t traumatized. He handled it well. He asked for the transfer, but not because he was traumatized.’

‘Probably in denial’, Wertz said, ‘being macho, too ashamed of his weakness to admit it.’

6.4.10

Discussion

Give your opinion on the following:

What positive qualities and skills can a person acquire while serving in the army?
Do you consider a professional army preferable? Why / Why not?
Are uniformity and conformity absolutely necessary in the army?
How would you characterize the ‘military mind’?
How conscripts should be trained, in your opinion?
Should university graduates serve in the army? Why / Why not?
What do you think of women’s right to serve in the army?
What reforms, if any, are desirable in the Belarusian army?

6.4.11

Interaction

Basing on the text and counter-arguments,

make up an interview with

an old army general
a ‘green’ conscript
a volunteer who joined a professional army

6.4.12

Writing

Who is responsible for wars breaking out in the

world? What can be done to prevent them?