From a social science perspective, what of the half dozen variables that came into play? You know, as pinker points out, you can't just say war declined because people got less warlike. There has to be exogenous forces at work. Well, steve and i have argued a bit about that, and some of that is in this book. A ii i a. He wants to find exogenous variables, oginus varils thinks it cause this, and i can't find them. N i don't want o find any other one, because i is really great.
In this conversation based on his new book, The Stupidity of War, political scientist John Mueller argues that American foreign policy since 1945 has been one long miscue; most international threats — including during the Cold War — have been substantially exaggerated. The result has been agony and bloviation, unnecessary and costly military interventions that have mostly failed. With international war in decline, complacency and appeasement become viable diplomatic devices and a large military is scarcely required.