Organized violence and social development: War as a product of modernity

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between violence, war, and modernity, and to re-examine the widely held assumption that modern social development leads to a decline in violence. The paper starts from the assumption that war is not a universal or natural phenomenon, but a specific, institutionalized form of collective violence that depends on the level of social organization and the development of institutional capacities. The study is based on a theoretical analysis of classical and contemporary sociological approaches, as well as insights from anthropological and historical research on the origins and variability of violence. The analysis shows that war is not a universal phenomenon, but a socially and historically conditioned form of violence. Although modern societies exhibit a decline in interpersonal violence, they simultaneously develop unprecedented organizational capacities for large-scale, coordinated, and legitimized violence. Modernity does not eliminate violence but transforms it. War can be understood as a product of complex social organization rather than a consequence of human nature.