The Causes of Peace: What We Know Now - Hardcover

Asle Toje, Member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Oslo
Asle Toje is the former research director at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. He has a PhD in International Studies from the University of Cambridge (2006). Among his last works are 'America, the EU and Strategic Culture' (Routledge, 2008); 'The European Union as a Small Power' (Macmillan, 2010); 'Neoclassical Realism in Europe' (Manchester University Press, 2012); and 'Will China's Rise Be Peaceful?: The Rise of a Great Power in Theory, History, Politics, and the Future' (Oxford University Press, 2018). Toje is a serving member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Bård Nikolas Vik Steen, Programme Manager, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo
Bård Nikolas Vik Steen is the Programme Manager of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. Steen received his education from Durham University and the University of Oslo. His current research interests include nuclear disarmament and the relationship between geopolitics, hegemonic change, and war. His latest publications include 'Nuclear Disarmament: A Critical Assessment' (Routledge, 2019), co-edited with Olav Njølstad.

People who lived through the second half of the 20th century witnessed an extraordinary change. A third world war, confidently predicted by the experts, never happened. Wars between great powers and developed countries ceased, and wars between countries dwindled in number. Conquest and annexation, once common, virtually disappeared. Rates of battles deaths fell by a factor of 20. Country after country abolished military conscription. And the popular image of war changed from glorious and manly to wasteful and tragic. How do we make sense of this pleasant surprise? Is it an illusion, a lucky streak in a random string of rolls of the dice? Is it real but transient, soon to give way to resurgent militant nationalism? Or does it signal a turning point in history, like the abandonment of human sacrifice and chattel slavery? The contributors to this volume disagree on their interpretations of the (so far) long peace, but they agree that it we need to understand it, and have illuminated a topic that in earlier decades would not have seemed worth of study: the causes of peace.
--Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now.