b. Political Organization as War Organization

b. Political Organization as War Organization

 

 

By combining the concept of organization and the war continu- ation theory of politics, the following three contents can be derived.

 

[Tab.2.2] The Emergence and Functions of Political Organizations

Basic Principles	Activity Classification	Activity Contents
Politics is continuation of war	㉠ Emergence of Political Organizations	Political organization emerge through war.
	㉡ Function of Political Organizations	Political organization perform and prepare for war.
	㉢ Structure of Political Organizations	They have similar or equivalent structures as war organizations.

 

The origin of political organizations

 

The view that the state, a representative political organization, was born from the necessity of conducting war has already been claimed by Herbert Spencer. According to Francis Fukuyama, the bureaucracy administrative organization that today becomes the center of the nation-state system also emerged as the military changed from being centered around the nobility to being centered around the commoners. The purpose was to collect and arm many people, train them, collect taxes to cover the huge military expenses, and manage to prevent shortages in large-scale conscription situations.

 

As is often the case in history, a country is born through war. Political organizations are created for the purpose of war and are born through war. This can be seen in the history of Sparta in the 7th century BC, which relied on a brutal and efficient military system to establish itself as a dominant power in southern Greece. The Scythians and Sarmatians, who were nomadic tribes, established a large and persistent military state that became the basic form of the political organization in the area. When the Ottoman state was first established, the organization of the warriors became an important form of political organization in Anatolia in the 13th century. In the early 17th century, when government control was nearly lost in the Russian Uprising (1598-1613), the first (Russian) national army was formed by gathering nobles, peasants, and other remaining forces, and the second national army served as the government of the Russian precursor, the Moscow state. The US government organization was also formed based on various organizations developed by leaders during the American War of Independence after the war of independence from Britain.

 

The organizational structure of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages was similar to that of military organizations, both physically and culturally. This similarity illustrates that political organizations, not just nations, grew and developed through wars and conflict. In the 14th century, the greatly developed English Parliament, in order to pay for the huge war expenses incurred from the 10-year war, developed a system of taxing which Edward could not do. In this way, all political organizations are born and grow through wars. This has been the case so far, and it will continue to be so in the future.

 

 

The function of a political organization

 

As explained in [Diag.2.A.1], the focus of political activities after the formation of a political organization after the end of the war is also on preparing and controlling for future wars. King Sejong was a scholarly king, but always put efforts into strengthening the national defense power, saying "You cannot forget what is dangerous during peace." This shows that preparing for war is essential for all countries. Political organizations' preparations for war are developed in two ways: one is to increase their own country's ability to wage war, and the other is to reduce or block the ability of other countries to wage war.

 

Examples of increased war-fighting capabilities in one's own country can easily be found from ancient Rome to modern military competition. And this increase in war-fighting capabilities leads first and foremost to the prosperity of the nation. One of the reasons why Rome was able to become an ancient superpower was that the Roman citizens were practical and dedicated soldiers. The Romans firmly pledged with an oath, "If the home steward calls out the banner, anyone shall throw themselves into defense and fulfill their duty by serving ten years in the military." In this way, Rome constantly sent its future free citizens and soldiers to the battlefield and further strengthened its troops by adequately reinforcing them with the benevolent citizens of various Italian cities.

 

Cases of war performance blocking by foreign countries can be seen in the example of the Qing dynasty that conquered Joseon and the Western powers that conquered the Qing dynasty again. After the Qing dynasty formed a strong relationship with Joseon through invasion, they continued to monitor Joseon. The most important aspect of their monitoring at the time was not academics or economics, but the military sector. "The Qing dynasty regularly inspected Joseon and suppressed its military power increase, and monitored military spending such as fortress construction without interruption." After the Boxer Protocol of 1901, the Western powers who occupied Beijing also banned the import of weapons for two years, dismantled the Great Wall of China, and prevented the installation of defense facilities on all routes from the coast to Beijing. They also authorized the deployment of military personnel within the territory of the Beijing government. After World War I, the Allied powers also attempted to prevent Germany's military expansion.

 

 

The Structure of Political Organizations

 

Generally, the structure of an organization follows the strategy it has adopted, and this is also true for political organizations. Political organizations started as military organizations, and their foundation is also based on military organizations, so the strategy for achieving their goals determines the structure of political organizations. More specifically, when the structure of a political organization is formed, two phenomena occur. One is that the military organization becomes the ruling organization, and the other is that political power is distributed according to military hierarchy.

 

Let me take an example of a war organization being considered as a political organization. In the political organizations of the feudal system in Europe, "the decentralization of the authority down through all levels of the military class (rank) formed chains of lordship as the power was received from below." In this way, the military organizations in the early construction of the state expanded into governing organizations, as was the case in Goryeo, Joseon, almost all countries in the Middle Ages, and even the Mongol Empire. If we look at the process of founding the Mongol Empire of Chinggis Khan, "Chinggis Khan created the system of thousands of households to manage the cavalry and established a system in which the military and government were aligned based on that." He reorganized it into tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and thousands of households and directly appointed the heads of the thousands and ten thousands.

 

On the other hand, it is inevitable that political power is distributed based on military hierarchy when the military organization becomes the governing body. This was the case in medieval Europe and still holds true today. The establishment of a state-controlled economy system by France and Britain to procure scarce military supplies during World War I also demonstrates how power in the economic field is distributed based on military hierarchy. For example, when the British navy was weakened by Germany's unrestricted submarine campaign in February 1917, the powerful state economic control that even the military minister could not have in the early stages of the war was transferred to the Allied Maritime Transport Council in December 1917.