War is Peace? The case for warfare as agent of peace and prosperity.

Apr 25 2015

One the one hand, our potential to kill has gone up and up and up, and yet the amount of times we use that potential keeps going down and down and down. It’s a very uneven process, some places become much safer than others, but this tension is always there.

Historian Ian Morris makes the case that as humanity’s potential for violence grows, and government gain a monopoly on destructive force, we are actually safer and more prosperous than at any time in history.

Ian is the author of the new book War! What Is It Good For? – Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots.

Guest

Ian Morris

Ian Morris is Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of Classics and Professor of History at Stanford University and a Fellow of the Stanford Archaeology Center.