This paper by Steven Huybrechts won the National Defense University President's Award for Excellence in Writing in 2004. It's an interesting fusion of influences, many of which may be familiar to the MemeStreams community. In a sentence, the basic message is that human genetics precludes world government. Perhaps the best way to encourage you to read the paper is to highlight some of the footnotes. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976. Plato: "only the dead have seen the end of war." Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors The National Security Strategy of the United States The Dialectical Logic of Thucydides' Melian Dialogue (JSTOR subscription required) Samantha Power, A Problem From Hell (New York: Perennial, 2003). Robert Upshall, Antibiotic Resistance (United Kingdom: Whinfield, May 1998). Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. (article), (chapter 1). Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees Robert Kagan, America's Crisis of Legitimacy, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2004, 65-87. Sisterhood is hungry: An egalitarian society of ants, The Economist, 23 August 1997 Joseph Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004). Alison George, "March of the Superbugs," New Scientist, 19 July 2003, S1. Robert D. Kaplan, The Coming Anarchy, The Atlantic Monthly, February 1994. Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology (Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1986). Errol Morris, The Fog of War. Sony Pictures Classics, 2003. Joshua Blu Buhs, The Fire Ant Wars, 2004. Natalie Angier, "Is War Our Biological Destiny?" New York Times, 11 November 2003.
The Biology of Conflict [PDF] |