Are we still living in a Westphalian world?

[TheCurmudgeon]

Scott,

One other quick point. I would dispute your interpretation that there was no war before there were politically defined groups.

Ungoverned Warfare - Before the Peace of Westphalia
In the beginning, the world was not a populated and warfare did not exist. As groups formed and people desired what others had, warfare began. Initially it was one group on another; separated by tribe, clan, race, religion, or other easily defined markings.

War is a characteristic of the Hominini tribe, a genetic classification that includes the Homo and the Pan line. Humans fall into the Homo line; Chimpanzees in the Pan line.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominini)


I make this statement because there is evidence not only of humans engaging in “war”, or deadly combat, back at least 50,000 years, but also because out Pan relatives engage in war. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/sc...himp.html?_r=0 - see also http://www.amazon.com/War-Human-Civi.../dp/0199236631 )

[slapout9]

Recent interview with Bill Lind on the peace of Westphalia and the changing nature of War


http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4501370/william-lind