WHY WAR?

An expert exploration of the title question.

Veteran military historian Overy—author of Blood and Ruins, RAF, A History of War in 100 Battles, and many other acclaimed books of military history, begins in 1932 when Einstein put the title question to Freud, who, the author writes, maintained that violence was “characteristic of the animal kingdom” and “could see no effective way of inhibiting the urge to fight and destroy.” Freudian explanations persisted until the 1970s before vanishing in favor of science and history, which had never been absent but never conclusive. Evolutionary biologists maintain that “warfare was one way…for humans to adapt to behavior that maximized survival.” They cannot resist explaining human behavior as homologous with that of animals, but this remains tenuous. Despite a similar lack of hard evidence, historians maintain that lethal violence increased as primitive hominins settled into communities, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. That prehistoric societies were pacific was widely endorsed until the 1960s, when four areas of evidence tipped the balance: skeletal trauma from innumerable massacre sites with remains of whole communities, cave drawings and iconography, fortified sites, and a surfeit of weapons. Readers expecting Overy’s usual vivid battlefield fireworks will be disappointed. This is a work of ideas. Overy asks a big question and queries other thinkers, who deliver confidently, perhaps overconfidently, expressed answers. Other scholars disagree, but Overy sees no end to war. The USSR’s collapse was a false dawn as an assertive China challenges American hegemony. Wars to obtain loot (i.e., “resources”) retain their appeal with lithium and rare earths in the wings to replace oil’s long-delayed decline. Perhaps most disheartening are hubristic wars launched by aggressive autocrats (Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler) who wreak massive but fleeting destruction. Readers may pray that “fleeting” applies to Vladimir Putin.

Astute if uncomfortable insights.