THE fact that chimpanzees wage land-grabbing battles (see 鈥淐himpanzees kill to win new territory鈥�) will be used by those who are cynical about human nature as evidence that warfare is inevitable. If our close relatives form coalitions to kill their rivals, such behaviour must be embedded in our DNA, they will argue.
But these battles are really no more than skirmishes: they have little in common with human warfare. The idea that war is hard-wired is also weakened by the fact that different human cultures have different propensities for war. For example, people in modern societies are less likely to die a violent death than those from some traditional cultures, and war between democratic nations is relatively rare.
However, as resources become ever more scarce, these advances in peace may be reversed. Resources also matter to chimps: a piece of land well-provisioned with fruit trees, for instance, is something to fight over. But this does not show the unavoidability of war. Instead, it serves as a reminder that a burgeoning global population and increasing pressures on supplies of food and water could lead to more than environmental turmoil.
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