Wars have been fought for decades creating the world we live in today. Charles Tilly observed that “the state made war and war made the state” (qtd in Sernau, 2009, 147). However, these battles were destructive and bloody and resulted in the deaths of countless individuals. These grave consequences lead us to ask the ever-problematic question: What could motivate a state to engage in war? Fundamentally, some believe that war is linked to a conflict of political and economic interests rooted in power struggles ranging from territorial and humanitarian to ideological and ethnic, while others argue that war has become entrenched in our societies and economies giving give rise to this tenacious cycle of confrontation. Territories are the basis of states. Consequently, Joshua Goldstein and Jon Pevehouse explain that “most of today's borders are the result of past wars (in which winners took territory from losers) or were imposed arbitrarily by colonizers” (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 25). Territory is valuable to states and is rarely surrendered voluntarily for some incentive and lost territory is not quickly forgotten (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 133). For example, the disputes were the consequence of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the colonization of the Middle East region by England and France through the Sykes Picot Agreement (Singh, 2003). These colonies eventually gained freedom, but several territorial disputes arose, the most important of which was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict related to the Oslo Accords (Singh, 2003). The concept of irredentism which is “The goal of regaining lost territory to another state” (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 133) is a problematic outcome of this dispute with the Palestinians believe… half of paper.. . .tions." Bint Jbeil. 1993. Web. 9 April 2012. .Kent, John. "The Cold War and the Periphery." History in Focus. Institute of Historical Research, 2006. Web. 9 April 2012. Nikitin, Alexander "Political and Economic Causes of War." Proceedings of the 50th Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs: Eliminating the Causes of War, Queen's College, Cambridge 2000. Print.Sanchez, Peter. Chicago, IL March 26, 2012. Sernau, Scott Equity, Peace and Sustainability. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2009. Print.Singh, KG “Treating the Symptoms Instead of the Cause.”. 2012. .