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Why war? Are there common principles that apply both to conflict among individuals and to conflict among nations? It seems obvious that the answer is yes, since in both cases it is people that are involved, human beings like you and me. But before we can deal with a problem we need to clarify what the problem is. Let me submit that the problem is not conflict.
Many people assume that our goal is to resolve all our conflicts, to wake up one morning with our conflicts resolved so we can then have peace. Clearly, that is unrealistic. We will have more conflicts next year than we had last. As I say to students who wonder whether they are going into a promising area of study, “conflict is a growth industry.” One hundred years ago, we and Canada had a dispute over the precise location of a granite boundary marker on the Minnesota line. Today, it is over acid rain. The difference in complexity, the difference in numbers of people involved, and the difference in the financial, economic, and social consequences is typical. Every day, internationally as well as domestically, we have more interactions and more cause for conflict. With technological progress, conflict comes more rapidly and more people want to have a say about what happens.