War is blood. The lifeblood of war is anger. Civil conflicts and war result into disintegration. The lifeblood of a state is its citizens. The lifeblood of citizen support for the government is the level of happiness. With the level of happiness dropping we certainly experience an increase level of anger. Anger means conflict and the disintegration of the entire socioeconomic system (Verhoeven, Duyvendak, 2016) . Anger is more powerful than reason (Yones, 1998) . A moment of anger can destroy years of prosperity, but anger is the result of chronic distrust in the government. One good case study is the situation in the State of Lebanon after 17 years of civil war pictures exactly this distrust in the government, viewed by 79% of the respondents as the primary source of stress, followed by Physical safety in 61% percent (Yones, 1998) . Physical safety is important especially after a period of conflict. The people need to feel secure and be secure. Third on their list on the causes of stress is Income. 58% percent of respondents considered that Income is a major source of stress (Yones, 1998) .

1. Happiness, Anger and Conflict of Nations
A Cold Analysis of the Civil War of Lebanon: Why Wars Happen
Author: PhD Jurist Trainer Dragoș Lucian Ivan
PhD in Social Sciences and Communication issued by the National School of Political Studies
and Public Administration
War is blood. The lifeblood of war is anger. Civil conflicts and war result into
disintegration. The lifeblood of a state is its citizens. The lifeblood of citizen support for the
government is the level of happiness. With the level of happiness dropping we certainly
experience an increase level of anger. Anger means conflict and the disintegration of the entire
socioeconomic system (Verhoeven, Duyvendak, 2016)1. Anger is more powerful than reason
(Yones, 1998)2. A moment of anger can destroy years of prosperity, but anger is the result of
chronic distrust in the government.
One good case study is the situation in the State of Lebanon after 17 years of civil war
pictures exactly this distrust in the government, viewed by 79% of the respondents as the primary
source of stress, followed by Physical safety in 61% percent (Yones, 1998)3. Physical safety is
important especially after a period of conflict. The people need to feel secure and be secure.
Third on their list on the causes of stress is Income. 58% percent of respondents considered that
Income is a major source of stress (Yones, 1998)4. Income and economic inequality is a result
and a cause of conflict, war. Distrust is not something that appears without a reason. It is
something that is built within the individual and which is transferred to the community. Once the
level of anger resulting from socioeconomic conditions deteriorating reaches a high level of
existence, it is only a matter of time until a major socioeconomic crisis starts to loom and take
apart the very existence of the government only to destroy the fabric of the country (Yones,
1998)5.
Reducing anger through a balanced and always equitable socioeconomic development
policy environment represents the key to promoting peace. A decrease in the happiness level is a
sign that the socioeconomic conditions need to be improved, otherwise a cycle of violence
resulting into socioeconomic decline and government dysfunction becomes more highly
probable. Brain drain, economic downfall, poverty, starvation, lost generations, lost potential and
a general sense of trauma is the result of such dysfunctional conditions (Snir, Levi-Belz,
Solomon, 2017)6. Instability appears in one moment of ignoring the needs of the people. An
important point for the socioeconomic cycle of creation-destruction is triggered when more than
half of the citizens are less hopeful or less trusting in the government. (Yones, 1998)
The case of the state of Lebanon is important to consider, because although it enjoy a
stable status, the trauma of past conflicts still affects both the individual and the community
psychological state. The fact that after several years of peace, 55% of those questioned, looking
back to their 12 months, say that they felt neutral, while 34% felt negative emotional states
represents another sign of the heavy psychological price of war. Only 11% experienced a
positive emotional state, a relatively small proportion, but on the raise towards the future (Yones,
1998)7.

2. Our contemporaries and past generations found it difficult to come to terms with the
causes of war, and more specifically, with the shocking idea that war comes to be the last resort
for those that have no other way of expressing their view. Although a particular attention has
been given to the religious and cultural dimension present in conflict environments, this alone is
rarely to be blamed for the presence of war. Cultural and religious diversity rarely diversity leads
to adversity without the major impact of economic and political imbalance. The presence of a
political and economic imbalance shapes the way in which the individual and the community
react and interact. The individual and the collective psyche of social groups are shaped by
imbalances in political representation and in economic opportunities more than diversity (Yones,
1998)8. The voting process and the fluid change of power allows for happiness to flow within the
social and psychological life of its citizens.
Undemocratic societies that do not allow free voting and an apparent possibility of
controlling political power eventually, present only the option of war and violence to those
citizens that wish to express themselves and control their own economic opportunities
(Backhaus, Gholizadeh, Godfrey, Pittman, Afari, 2017)9. The voting process is also a symbol for
national unity. The moment in which the vote of one citizen is more important than the vote of
another it is created the context for war and conflict. Equality is paramount in order to foster
psychological health and well-being. Once this goal is achieved one can expect socioeconomic
well-being. At this point we have brought into question the economic aspect. Statistically, the
majority of people do not wish to have access to actual political power as long as they have
access to economic growth and possibilities. Possibilities represent more than just opportunities
for gain, but also access to facilities such as healthcare. 32% of the respondents considered a
major stress factor the lack of access to proper health care institutions (Yones, 1998)10. The
presence of a balanced economic system that will foster a between the relevant growth
opportunities and the demand by all ethnic, geographic, social, cultural, age, class groups within
a country is a guarantee that none of them will start or encourage conflict for political change.
On the other hand the absence of economic opportunities will trigger anger (Bradshaw, 2016)11.
We use the simple term of anger in order to underline its power within an individual and within a
community. Once anger is present it can result into overreaction, retaliatory behavior,
rationalized destruction, immoral actions (Jordan, Eisen, Nash, Litz, 2017)12 and unhappiness.
These are all primary sources of conflict and incentives for war. Anger is stronger than any
rationale though.
Working on the nexus between the well-being and over-all happiness of the citizens and
the integrity of both state and government is a step towards achieving the fluctuation of
perspectives on the causes of war that we encounter in people’s thinking. Following this line of
argumentation the anatomy of the causes of war is built around overreaction, ignorance or
underestimation of the citizens’ unhappiness, the perpetuation of a vicious cycle of retaliatory
actions, the presence of rationalized destruction, the constant presence of immoral justified or not
actions and narrow incentives that are given out based on partisan, tribal, economic, geographic,
sectarian grouping and bias. This may be seen as a synthesis of our outlook on war and on the
status of psychological health and well-being in creating a societal balance between the supply of
proper opportunities that foster growth within a balanced, adaptable, secular and democratic
power-sharing system that is able to defend against the perpetuation of violence. Considering

3. the over-all evolution of war we underline the social and psychological costs of the civil war and
we propose the implementation of a subjective well-being (SWB) system. The purpose would be
to create public policies in accordance with the needs of the citizens, while monitoring the level
of happiness of the people in order to warn for potential unrest (Yones, 1998)13.
Whenever the profit brought about by fear and division seems to be higher than the
economics of peace, trust and unity we are confronted with violence, and conflict. Civil, national
and international conflicts leave the people without the chance for peace and development.
The Social, Psychological, and Economic Cost of War
War is destruction. Violence is loss, be it economic, social, health or rule of law. Political
and social unrest result in economic, social, personal, family, health loss and peril. The cost of
war is timeless. The simple presence of a violent event in a country’s history results into social,
psychological and economic costs. For example, countries that are not at war such as Columbia
and Peru spend a great deal of their resources in an attempt to solve issues of violence. Although
expenditure is high, the cost translates also in revenues loss as a result of the circumstances.
Furthermore, societies that are within a period of transition from war to peace remind us of the
heavy cost of violence, a cost that is paid long after the war is over. Guatemala, El Salvador,
Nicaragua are still in process of recovering from conflicts that still ravage their economic and
social fabric through the presence of violence and conflict (Moser, Shrader, 1999)14. A conflict-
oriented mind-set is shaped during a war and it is hard to replace it with a different outlook on
life (Silove, Tay, Steel, Tam, Soares, Reis, Alves, Rees, 2017)15. War is followed by war if you
are unlucky. Even when you are lucky war is followed by conflict, by violence, by crime and
violence, by crime and in the end by peace. The road to peace is paved with crime and violence,
because a society rarely goes from anger to happiness. The healing process takes time. Societies
that have not experienced war still are confronted with the prospect of violence, such as Ecuador,
Jamaica, Mexico and Venezuela (Moser, Shrader, 1999)16.
At a first glance it would seem that violence is a danger for the individual, but when
analyzing the impact it has we understand why it is considered a macroeconomic problem.
Violence is a serious deterrence for investors. The presence of violence and conflict may mean
an increase in costs because it needs investment in security. Furthermore, it translates in the
impossibility of accessing certain areas in influencing the placing of capital. Regions that are
known for being dangerous, although would greatly benefit from investments, receive far less
capital as a result of an imbalanced environment. Both the manufacturing and the business sector
need to take into consideration the level of danger present in a community or in a region and
prepare for it. For a country, the perpetuation of violence means the need to invest resources and
man power in order to control it. Statistics display a staggering 15% of the Columbian GNP
invested in security measures (Moser, Shrader, 1999)17. At the micro-level the presence of
violence and conflicts impacts the individual in a negative manner. From an economic point of
view we are talking about individuals that fall victim to violence and are unable to further
contribute to the economic prosperity of the country. Furthermore, the victims of the violent acts
need care and recuperation, which means costs. The reduction of the human capital is a direct
result of violence and war. Increasing level of violence creates a lack of trust between individuals
and community, being an active discouraging factor towards a better communication with your

4. neighbor, your fellow citizen and your people. The presence of violence results in a sharp drop in
asset value in the area affected by violence, conflict or war (Clifton, E.G., Feeny, N.C., Zoellner,
L.A., 2017)18.
Tourism is also affected and we would like to mention the case of Rio de Janeoiro, a
touristic attraction that is known also for the high level of violence. Violent areas prevent people
living there from developing social relationships and from developing social capital. Such areas
tend to be isolated in an attempt to protect the other communities, without solving the problem.
We shall move on to the example of Lebanon. The source of conflict is discontent, but
discontent can also result from conflict. For example, consider the Lebanese civil war that placed
a great social and psychological burden upon the people, resulting in one of the most
discontented generations in the history of the country. The civil war ravaged the country between
1975 and 1990, resulting into a societal dysfunction that placed its marked upon an entire
generation. The consequences of war were all too obvious, over 1,5 million citizens were injured,
almost half of the population (Yones, 1998)19. Chronic violence is just one of the consequences
of violence and war. Chronic violence resulted in psychological changes that still influence the
mind of both individual and community. Migration and local extremism is fueled by anger from
this chronic violence. Local extremism is a result of past conflict and of present economic
imbalance, endangering the future because it also can fuel a future conflict. Data gathered depict
a gloomy picture in which after eight years after the civil conflict the population is under
collective psychological trauma. The psychological drama drove over other eight million people
to seek a better life and happiness outside Lebanon. The number of people that left the country
represents the double of the current population of Lebanon. Data gathered from those that sought
refuge outside Lebanon underlined the fact that physical security and better access to economic
opportunities resulted into a higher level of happiness (Yones, 1998)20. Another well-being
deficit is the lack of trust that results in a staggering economy. The lack of trust prevents people
from investing in the country and taking economic risks such as starting a business, taking on
loans or expanding their social network in an environment devoid of trust. The quantitative data
reveled this problem through the presence of a percent of 41 of the respondents considering that
another important stress factor is the building of social relationships. The lack of trust makes it
very difficult to expand one’s social network, although a person gains a feeling of happiness
when surrounded by people who can be trusted. Trust is an important aspect of any economic
and social relationships. It becomes even more important in an environment in which there is no
actual trust in the rule of law. Devoid of trust, as a characteristic that you can notice in your
fellow human being and without the rule of law to enforce contract, rules and norms, people are
reluctant to invest money, time and resources in business or in other people. Most people report
mistrust in the government and in the institutions. Although people are optimistic about the
future demonstrated by the fact that 81% believe there has been progress when comparing their
living conditions to the civil war, whereas 28% believe there has been an overall improvement in
their lives in the past 5 years, their lack of trust is still present. Despite the lack of trust, 9%
believe that their lives are going to improve significantly over the next 5 years. Let us not
underestimate the social and psychological cost of war.
Saving Peace through Citizen and Policy Oriented Conclusions

5. The closer we try to understand life and what suppresses life, for example war and
violence, we understand that preserving peace starts with enforcing the rule of law. Through
guaranteeing the authentic independence of the judicial system we ensure on one hand the trust
of the citizen in the government and on the other hand we allow the citizen to have access to an
instrument capable to fight corruption and reinstate accountability. We are not referring only to
trust but just as important is the feeling that those that hold power can be held accountable. These
two nuances of our philosophy play a vital part in avoiding unhappiness among citizens and in
preventing violence. The rule of law allows citizens to feel that they hold control even without
holding power. Furthermore, the rule of law prevents wide spread corruption and allows for
economic development and equal opportunities for all. In our investigation, as we continue, the
clearer it becomes that the inherited conventions on war and the role of violence have to be
discarded in favor of values such as peace, economic prosperity and tolerance that can become
widespread through an education curriculum adapted to these values. The citizen needs to be
given more chances to actively participate in the political life and to be actively trained to be an
educated citizen. As a result, we consider that the extending of e-government and e-schools,
taking advantage of the technological advances in our society would greatly benefit the level of
happiness among citizens and accelerate the active implementation of the new policies for peace.
At this point we have to recognize that we are dealing, in Lebanon for example, with a conflict
oriented mind-set. It is truly challenging to work with such a pattern, but by creating laws and
peace centered education we can strive towards building incentives towards peaceful resolution
that surpass the temptation of resolution through conflict. War and conflict presents huge risks,
of life and loss, it should not be too difficult to offer a viable solution to replace this conflict-
oriented mind-set.
Debating the judicial system we have to foster the opinion that the development of equal
employment opportunities together with a party system that is multi-sectarian in tandem with a
meritocracy-based socioeconomic system would result into a wide participation of all classes of
citizens to the building of the state. We envision stakeholders sharing equal stakes in the
development and the survival of the political system. Ideally we would be working within a
political system that strives towards treating everybody as equal in front of law, government and
administration. Under these circumstances we would have the support of the people for the
system and the chance for war and conflict would be reduced to an insignificant level. We are
starting from a difficult position, one in which although there are plenty of political slogans that
underline equality we continue to witness how powerful state stakeholders bully and influence
those that are weaker. It is important to allow mobility within the society and allow opportunity
to characterize each community and group, no matter the class, religious, political affiliation,
preference for religion.
You probably noticed that we centered our belief upon the level of happiness of the
citizen. Measuring the level of happiness would present a true difficulty, but our research model
is constructed on a few hypotheses that support our ideal. In order to accurately modify the
government system, within the education system and the judicial system of laws we should find
the results of a subjective well-being survey. Such a sociological research instrument would act
not only as an early warning system for potential conflict, but also would offer valuable
information on issues that are truly neglected by public policy but important for the citizen. The
subjective well-being survey would have to know a demographic level, a geographic level and a

6. temporal span. It would capture realities that are true for specific communities, at specific
intervals in time and be able to anticipate and predict tendencies in the future (Itzhaky, 2016)21.
These tendencies should be founded on the past results. This would result in the active capability
of the government to construct local policies that can address the various needs of different
communities and groups of citizens within the country. The paramount aspect in all of this
system would be the independence of the researchers conducting the survey. In order to avoid
bias while interpreting the data in an accurate way, the researchers would have to be
independent. Furthermore, the researchers would have to be protected against outside influences.
It is important to have data that can be used based on real facts, not data that has been tampered
in order to manipulate or present an ideal reality. Sometimes the truth is difficult to handle, but
we believe that although though measures should be taken to prevent conflict and war, it out-
weights the peril of having an active and volatile conflict within the community. The survey
would have an individual dimension, as well as a community dimension. The individual is
important, psychologically speaking, but we are interested also in the sociology of the group.
Through the presence of this subjective well-being survey we intend to minimize the gap
between the stakeholders in a state and offer the citizen the change to present his own perception
on the solid ground of a state that cares for the happiness of its people.
1 Verhoeven, I., Duyvendak, J. (2016). Enter emotions. Appealing to anxiety and anger in a process of municipal
amalgamation. Critical Policy Studies, vol. 10 (4).
2 Yones, M. (1998).Subjective Well-Beingas Public Policy and Tool to Prevent Future Civil Conflicts.Public Policy
Proposal for the Government of Lebanon. Management & Technology Consulting Group. Accessed at:
http://www.mtcg.biz/articles/Subjective_Well-being_Public_Policy_SWB_1998_Yones_M.htm
3 Ibidem
4 Ibidem
5 Ibidem
6 Snir,A., Levi-Benz, Y., Solomon, Z. (2017).Is the war really over? A 20-year longitudinal study on trajectories of
suicidal ideation and posttraumatic stresssymptoms followingcombat. Psychiatry research, vol.247, pp. 33-38.
7 Yones, M. (1998).Subjective Well-Beingas Public Policy and Tool to Prevent Future Civil Conflicts.Public Policy
Proposal for the Government of Lebanon. Management & Technology Consulting Group. Accessed at:
http://www.mtcg.biz/articles/Subjective_Well-being_Public_Policy_SWB_1998_Yones_M.htm
8 Ibidem
9 Backhaus,A., Gholizadeh,S., Godfrey, K.M., Pittman, J. (2017). The many wounds of war: The associati on of
service-related and clinical characteristicswith problems with the lawin Irak and Afghanistan veterans.
International Journal of Law of Psychiatry, vol. 49, pp. 205-213.
10 Yones, M. (1998).Subjective Well-Beingas Public Policy and Tool to Prevent Future Civil Conflicts.Public Policy
Proposal for the Government of Lebanon. Management & Technology Consulting Group. Accessed at:
http://www.mtcg.biz/articles/Subjective_Well-being_Public_Policy_SWB_1998_Yones_M.htm
11 Bradshaw,S.C. (2016).Threat, Anger, and Support for war: Media Coverage of U.S. Policy towards ISIL.The
University of Arizona.
12 Jordan, A.H., Eisen, E., Bolton, E., Nash, W.P., Litz, B.T. (2017).Distinguishingwar-related PTSD Resultingfrom
Perpetration and Betrayal-Based Morally InjuriousEvents. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and
Policy.
13 Yones, M. (1998). Subjective Well-Beingas Public Policy and Tool to Prevent Future Civil Conflicts.Public Policy
Proposal for the Government of Lebanon. Management & Technology Consulting Group. Accessed at:
http://www.mtcg.biz/articles/Subjective_Well-being_Public_Policy_SWB_1998_Yones_M.htm

7. 14 Moser, C., Shrader, E. (1999).A conceptual Framework for Violencereduction. Urban Peace Program Series.
Latin America and Caribbean Region, Sustainable Development Working Paper no. 2. Accessed at:
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/pt/774791468782146689/pdf/multi-page.pdf
15 Silove,D.M., Tay, A.K., Steel, Z., Tam, N., Soares, Z., Reis,N., Alves, A., Rees, S. (2017).Symptoms of post-
traumatic stress disorder,severe psychological distress,explosiveanger and grief amongst partners of survivors of
high levels of trauma in post-conflictTimor-Leste. Psychological medicine, vol. 47, pp. 149-159.
16 Moser, C., Shrader, E. (1999).A conceptual Framework for Violencereduction. Urban Peace Program Series.
Latin America and Caribbean Region, Sustainable Development Working Paper no. 2. Accessed at:
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/pt/774791468782146689/pdf/multi-page.pdf
17 Ibidem
18 Clifton,E.G., Feeny, N.C., Zoellner,L.A. (2017).Anger and guiltin treatment for chronic posttraumatic stress
disorder.Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, vol. 54, pp. 9-16.
19 Yones, M. (1998).Subjective Well-Beingas Public Policy and Tool to Prevent Future Civil Conflicts.Public Policy
Proposal for the Government of Lebanon. Management & Technology Consulting Group. Accessed at:
http://www.mtcg.biz/articles/Subjective_Well-being_Public_Policy_SWB_1998_Yones_M.htm
20 Ibidem
21 Itzhaky, L. (2016).Long-Term Guiltand Hostility UnderlyingPosttraumatic Stress Symptoms in War Combatants
and Ex-prisoners of War. Journal of Loss and Trauma, vol.22 (3),