Since World War II, there have been no major wars between rich capitalist societies. On the other hand, the socialist world experienced the invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, war between China and Vietnam, and continued military confrontation between China and the Soviet Union. Arguably, of course, capitalist societies have at least as bad a record in terms of military interventions and the promotion and propping up of military dictatorships [3]. The point here is that state socialism has not provided any hint of a solution to the problem of war.

A key reason for this is that socialism developed in the mould of states, just like capitalism. Socialist states have relied on military forces to protect themselves internally and externally, just like capitalist states. Liebknecht’s analysis of the use of military forces for internal repression seems to apply to socialist states as well as to capitalist ones. In the face of capitalist militarism, "actually existing socialism" failed to challenge the foundations of militarism...

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