Why war?

[Al Khalifah]

Mankind is on the way to ending global conflicts and is going to replace them with lots of small regional conflicts.
In the future nations will not go to war, but rather ideals and religions and probably corporations will. It won't be war as we know it though, it will be a series of relatively small scale invisible wars of sabotage and public misinformation.

As long as there are people in the world who cannot get what they want there will always be violence and when does a fight become a riot and a riot become a war?

[Franconicus]

Al Khalifah,

UN does not seem to be the ideal that keeps the world togehter and even the NATO does not seem to have a common ideal anymore.

What could be the common ideal that keeps people together? Or could it be a global threat like global warming?

[Al Khalifah]

What could be the common ideal that keeps people together? Or could it be a global threat like global warming?

From past experiences, alliances between different groupings with conflicting interests only tend to be able to find common ideals where there is mutual benefit or a mutual threat.
Global warming is a problem that will affect the whole world, but unfortunately I doubt it will be able to unite the world's peoples. What people need is an enemy to work against - nothing brings people together like a common enemy unfortunately - but it is not possible to unite everyone against someone because there is no one left to fight. Hopefully some other common cause will emerge in the future to unite the world, space exploration for example.

[LittleGrizzly]

Do you agree with the statement in the quote?

its a bit to long to agree or disagree with, it seemed mostly correct, imo

Do you think that mankind is on the way to end war?

I think if we don't wipe ourselves out first, mankind will be able to stop warring with itself in a millenia

[bmolsson]

War is a loss for all parties. I do recognize that it sometimes is necessary, but it can never be the preferred choice.

[Al Khalifah]

"Armed conflict is the last arm of diplomacy."

[Paul Peru]

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

I think the EU is "beyond" war - at the moment.
Europe has never been in such a good state. It's not just that we're more advanced and prosperous than we used to, IMO. Other united entities may still be barbarian misantropes...

There is no way a civilised humanist can use war to resolve a conflict of interest. (applies to religious humanists as well as secular)
Self defense may be possible.

How deep and resistant to corrosives is the lacquer of civilisation, though?
I'm certain I'm civilised to the bone myself, but examples of how surprisingly, shockingly easy it peels off abound.

I hope the UN will be revitalised, and become what it's intended to be instead of a stomping ground for those who have concern only for power and wealth.

[Duke Malcolm]

Mankind shall never end war. We may achieve peace on continents such as Europe, but warfare just increases in the other places, like the African successor states. No matter how civilised man can get, there shall always be war. Perhaps in the distant future, we may achieve peace on earth, but then we may end up with war in space. Thoe only way I think that we could achieve peace just now is if the peace was enforced.