Milos Stankovic

When will we ever learn?

Will we ever find a solution to war before it’s too late? Martin Van Creveld thinks not; but A.C. Grayling is more hopeful

issue 06 May 2017

In 2012, sugar became more dangerous than gunpowder. According to the historian Yuval Noah Harari, of the 56 million people who died that year, 620,000 did so by the hand of their fellow humans: 120,000 in war and 500,000 from crime. By contrast, 1.5 million died from diabetes. Harari’s wry observation adds weight to Steven Pinker’s assertion in The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) that humans are on a trajectory towards peace and non-violence.

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