Learning Objectives

  • Describe war as a social concept.
  • Discuss patterns and trends in the incidence and costs of war.
  • Describe the future of war.
  • Apply the functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict perspectives to war.
  • Apply the two-society thesis to the relationship between the U.S. military and U.S. society.
  • Discuss the Global War on Terror.
  • Identify steps toward social change to foster peace.