S)AS THE MEDIA KEEP’ REMENDING US, ead anene as violent ance! rents nck mere aden, ene tehang genie 7 i, Palestine,” ‘Sudan, ‘Burundi; Somalia, Ed alo, We ae smh in wed Shee ca a op ‘siles [The ‘eight declared nuclear states eT ay than 00. washeade «Enene tenjand fers persue ‘58otran and Nofth Korea ‘io abandon their elesr ambition’ have filed. he US. ‘still spetids almost a& much on defense ia all other. countries combined, while ‘pereent). “The past year saw increasing threats to’ security, stability, and peace in nearly every corner of the globe,” the Stockholm International Peace Re- spor “0 a dlose|{ War could’ _ be.on the verge of Sdsing io exist as | substantial phenomenon,” “says. John, Mustct'a!potfeal seis st bio ‘Site University vo Une since L0ct “That hight sound rary, but Consider ‘two Or 1 Givi ware bave i Tha peak ibe early 19500, whe fighting fore apart Rwanda, the Balkans, aid other replons. Most armed éonficis ‘ow consist of lolevel gues cam: palms, insunenciss, and teors— What Meller alls the “remnanis {these facts would provide litle cox search Institute recently warned.) fort if war's remnants were nonetheless Joy 9 (The economic crisis was supposed to_ iT ipfeageviolence around he worl. The” kilingiiions of people—but they'e 200 tein je hat weare now ivingin nest not. Resenttadies reveal a dea do an TE fig DENTE Tham AED coi LISP, oe mast peacefulneriods since warfirst ward trend, Ii 2008, 45,600 combat) (%13 Gr OW Laven, APH RW SPREE Zea, and “indirect” deaths from war-related Gisease and famine, but even. when these casualties are included, mal ‘war-elated de 5.2007 ire stil low by historical standards. ‘Acts of ferotism Hike the of attacks dr dhe 2004 bombing of Spanish trains, ‘account for less than 1 percent of fatal ‘ania and-ciians were killed as a direct ‘arose 16 or 12 millennia agofThe relative result result of armed conflicts, according-to| alm ourere, sey scientists who study warfare in history and even prebstory, ties the popular, pessimistic notion inar is 80 deeply rooied our ature that We as never abolih i Tn A act ar seems fo be a largely cultural atl pesomenin;, which, culture now “Hy Program in Sweden. Tunthirds of thes! deaths took place in just three troubl spots: Sri Lanka (6,400), Afghanistart (4,600), and Iraq (4,000), (Cppsale’s igures excludedeaths from os sided conflict,” in which combat ants deliberately kill unarmed cvlins, jlpidg'us eradicate- Some scholars ‘nd. even autiously speculate that the ‘that thepeople a enberg rding to Milton f Mary- during th century, Considered as a percer population, the body count of the 20th that of blood: such as the Padre antl ae eet tionary creasing number ofrandations. tional dmsifufions, sch ‘as the United,’’ Kind of violent, Hobbesian chaos that cura’ undations: te ae for’ distinguishing “i ary cilizations, ‘euch at those founded. in) Mesopotamia and Beyot "6,000" ‘were extremely war: {ike They tsoenbled large armies and began inventing new techniques and Dg technologies ingen thorse- Wii drawn checiots abd calapults to bombs. ad (Bat iation-staes alee also developed laws votes "Ed inatifutions for resolving disputes, in nonvioleatly, at east within their bor- ders. These cultural innovations helped "i reduce the endless, Hifor-tat ‘that zlagued pre-state societies, [A host of other cultural factors may eaplain the more recent Gop Ta international war_and_other forms 2) of social violence. One is a surge in Dérac, demorratc rather ‘than totalitarian governance. Over the past :wo cents- 1) Bes democracies suchas the US. have Cay. cereeneP ae FI] Newsweek speciat issue ‘sing, IE the thumbér has since ‘Nations-and the European Union also _povthologs Steven Pinker. Ache me ‘ime, he poiats, out; globalization and omimunicatons have made ws.incheas-' jgutaide of oar OF course, the a cremains dan- ‘place, ° vilnerable: _ disrup- “the spread of violent ee ‘ign, as exnbodied by Al Qaeda, er so Ananda mee elo aes ‘fophe could pling 28 back into the “plagued many’ pre-sats societies thou: saae year gg. "War ino intrinsic See HAVE! DOUBLED, ONE FACTOR MAKING US LESS WILLING TO RISK OUR LIVES IN COMBAT, phenomenon by_foste interdependence.] [Advances _in_ civil] sights for women My also be making] jornic ‘us more peaceful. As women's educa ion and economic opportunities rise| birtiraies fall. decreasing demands on| fteramendl and medial aes pletion of safural resources, whic Gp others ead fo socal unrest} tribiiting factor. Over the past century, sverage life spans have almost doubled, ‘which could make us less wing to risk cour lives by engaging in war and other forms of violence, proposes Harvard D once Lie cmt mas? Dovenes Past cedriiys: Less timely PPE Y Even cea. > 4 siertnare D & to hia nature, but neither is peace,” ‘Wazne The poUnGAT scientist Nils Pet ter Gleitsch ofthe International Peace Research instizateinO [So far the trends are positive] I they continue, who knows? World peace— the dream of countless visionaries and bemuty-pageant contestants—or something lke it may finally ‘come topass ORGAN is director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology and a correspondent for Bloggingbeads.tv b dE Seertin REC