The assessment of human conflict hinges significantly on how the term “war” is defined. According to Ian Morris, an historian at Stanford University and author of War! What Is It Good For?
Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots, if war is understood as a structured struggle between two established powers, then periods of peace characterized much of human existence. He suggests that for the vast majority of human history, such formalized power struggles were absent. Despite this distinction regarding large-scale warfare, the evidence suggests that violence has been a persistent element of the human experience.
When considering whether people have ever lived without violence, the consensus points toward a continuous pattern of conflict. Furthermore, academic reviews examining early human history indicate that formalized warfare may have been rare or non-existent during the time when people lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers. This suggests a critical divergence between the concept of localized violence and organized warfare.
While the presence of conflict is undeniable, the historical record suggests that the mechanisms we classify as war have emerged over time, marking distinct periods in human development. Therefore, while violence has been present ever since our earliest ancestors, the structured nature of war has been intermittent.
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