The Why of War and the How of Peace, Part I: Lessons from the Modern World ~ Douglas P. Fry

History is full of wars. Why? Is war driven by fear? Greed? Revenge? Ambitious leaders? Is it rooted deep in human nature—or does it emerge only under particular social conditions?

And what do we learn if we change the angle from wars to non-wars? What lessons emerge from a study of all the periods and regions where war did not take place?

My guest in this two-part mini-series is Douglas P. Fry, an anthropologist who has spent decades studying these questions. He is also a returning guest, and one of the first scholars ever to appear on this podcast.

In Part II of our conversation, we will return to the topic of our episode from years back: the origins of war in prehistory. In this first part, however, we take a very different approach. We discuss lessons from modernity, with our topics ranging from the quest for peace after WWII to the societies in the Brazilian Amazon and Indigenous North America.

What makes former enemies trust one another? What roles are played by equality, trade, or a new shared enemy? And how can cycles of fear, retaliation, and revenge be reversed without simply surrendering to aggression?

At a time when war once again dominates the news, these questions could hardly be more urgent. But they also point towards a part of the human story that is too easily forgotten: our capacity not only to make war, but to understand it—and to build peace that lasts.

Enjoy!

FACT-CHECKING

My wording on Ukraine giving up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for "security guarantees" is slightly stronger than the formal language of the Budapest Memorandum, which talked of “security assurances” rather than legally binding security guarantees.

If you notice a factual error in this conversation, please get in touch via Substack or the form below.

LINKS

Fry's 2026 book: Advanced Introduction to Conflict Resolution

Support: ⁠Patreon.com/OnHumans⁠

Articles & newsletter: ⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠

Get in touch: ⁠https://forms.gle/h5wcmefuwvD6asos8⁠

Music credit: Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin_Music) via Pixabay.

NAMES MENTIONED

KEY WORDS

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(112)

Beyond Paleo: A Culinary History of Humanity ~ Daniel Lieberman

“What do you think of the paleo diet?” To my surprise, this has become the most common question I get after telling people that I cover human evolution. I’ve long struggled to answer. Yes, the idea ma...

24 Aug 1h 2min

When Did Globalisation Really Begin? ~ Valerie Hansen

We can decide to stay home, but even then, the wider world is always close to our skin. From global trade to ideas that travel across continents, the wider world is always woven into our modern life.S...

25 Juli 47min

The Why of War and the How of Peace, Part II: Lessons from Prehistory ~ Douglas P. Fry

How old is war? Does it stretch deep into human origins, or did warfare become common only as growing populations settled down? In Part II of this conversation with Douglas P. Fry, we return to the lo...

21 Juni 41min

The Big Picture: Measuring the Origins of the Modern World ~ Bishnupriya Gupta & Stephen Broadberry (Great Divergence #5)

Was India once an affluent empire, later impoverished by British colonisation? Or was India never rich to begin with? More generally, what does historical data on wages and other economic indicators t...

14 Maj 46min

A View From the East: China, Japan, and the Other Paths to Prosperity ~ Debin Ma (Great Divergence #4)

The tech gap between China and the West is closing fast. But why did the land that invented paper and gunpowder ever fall behind? Debin Ma is the world’s leading economic historian of East Asia. In th...

7 Maj 46min

Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen in Britain? ~ Robert Allen (Great Divergence #3)

Why was industrial modernity born in Europe and not, say, China? This is one of the most consequential questions about the origins of the modern world. Yet asking “why Europe” can mislead. The Industr...

29 Apr 58min

Why Did So Many Inventions Come from Europe? ~ Joel Mokyr (Great Divergence #2)

Several inventions mark the progress towards modernity - the Gutenberg printing press, the Galileo telescope, the Watt steam engine. But why was Europe the birthplace of so many of these? Joel Mokyr, ...

22 Apr 48min