Recommendation: Is a human race without war possible?
Preface: The Mystery of War

Part 1: The Last 2 Million Years of War: Environment, Genes, and Culture

Chapter 1 Introduction: "The Natural State of Man"

Chapter 2: Peaceful or Warlike: Did Hunter-Gatherers Fight?
Simple Hunter-Gatherers: Australia's 'Laboratory' / The War Between Complex Hunter-Gatherers

Chapter 3: Why Humans Fight: An Evolutionary Perspective
Innate but selective tactics / evolutionary calculations / larger groups

Chapter 4 Motivation: Food and Sex
Survival Resources: Hunting Area, Water, Shelter, Raw Materials / Breeding / Intermission: Are Men Beasts?

Chapter 5 Motivation: The Web of Desire
Domination: Rank, Status, Prestige, Honor / Revenge: Retaliation for Elimination and Deterrence / Power and the 'Security Dilemma' / Worldview and the Supernatural / Mixed Motives: Cannibalism / Play, Adventure, Sadism, and Ecstasy / Conclusion

Chapter 6: "Primitive Wars": How They Were Waged
Combat, Ambush, Surprise / Asymmetric Preemptive Strike

Chapter 7 Conclusion: Fighting in the Evolutionary State of Nature

Part 2: Agriculture, Civilization, and War

Chapter 8 Introduction: Evolving Cultural Complexity

Chapter 9: Tribal Warfare in Agricultural and Pastoral Societies
The emergence and spread of agriculture / Armed conflict during the spread of agriculture / Tribal society / Tribal warfare / Warfare among pastoral tribes / Primitive equestrian herders / Armed retainers: Wealth and power in the transition from tribes / Chieftaincy

Chapter 10: The Emergence of States and Armed Forces
Rural Small States and War in the Formation of the Nation / The Rise and Fall of City-States and War

Chapter 11: The Vanguard of Eurasia: East, West, and the Steppes
The King's Cavalry: Horses, Infantry, and Political Societies in Time and Space / What is Feudalism? / Semi-Feudal and Centralized-Bureaucrat Armies / State-Organized Infantry and the Decline of Knightly Power / The Rise and Decline of Empires / Mounted Raiders and Steppe Empires / West versus East

Chapter 12 Conclusion: War, Leviathan, and the Pleasures and Pains of Civilization
Coercive Structures and Exponential Growth / Who Benefits: Material Elements / Sex and Harems / Gardens of Delight and Cherubs at the Gates with Flaming Swords / The Pursuit of Power and Glory / Kinship, Culture, Ideology, and Ideals / War: A Serious Matter for a Serious Goal, or a Reckless Thing?

Part 3: Modernity: The Two Faces of Janus

Chapter 13 Introduction: The Explosion of Wealth and Power

Chapter 14: Guns and Markets: Europe's Emerging States and the Global World
The Emergence of the 'Warring States' in Europe / What Constituted the 'Military Revolution' / The State and the Army / Sea Power and the Commercial-Financial Revolution / The Market System and Military Capability / The Printing Press, Nations, and Great Armies / Modern Warfare—Modern Peace

Chapter 15: Prometheus Free and Prometheus Bound: War in the Mechanized Age
The Explosion of Technology and the Infrastructure of Power / Wealth, Technology, and Military Hardware / Wars between Great Powers and Wars between Nations / Wars of Empires / The Challenge of Totalitarianism and Why It Was Defeated / Conclusion

Chapter 16: Affluent Liberal Democracies, the Ultimate Weapon, and the World
Does 'Democratic Peace' Exist? / Resetting 'Democratic Peace' / Other Independent Related Factors / Strategic Policies of Liberal States: Isolationism, Appeasement, Blockade, and Limited War / Is the Advanced World a Zone of Peace? / Regions Where Modernized and Traditional Societies Conflict / Unconventional Terrorism and the New World Disorder / Conclusion

Chapter 17: Conclusion: Unraveling the Mystery of War

Acknowledgments / Notes / Translator's Note / Index / Illustration Sources

A New Perspective on the Interrelationship Between Civilization and War

This book explores a wide range of topics, from the origins of our species to today's unconventional terrorist threats, from a multidisciplinary perspective that combines multiple disciplines.
It also shows that large-scale violent conflict has always been with us, that the objects of struggle and the objects of human desire have always been the same.
Tracing the course of war across time and space around the world, this book provides rich insights into key stages in human history.
Why do humans engage in deadly conflicts? Is war rooted in human nature, or is it a later cultural invention? What is the relationship between war and major developments in world history, such as the emergence of agriculture, the rise of the state, the birth of civilization, and the rise of modernity and democracy? Is war constantly spreading, or is it declining?

Azha Gat, a leading figure in military thought and strategy

Azar Gat, who is introduced to Korea for the first time through this book, is an Israeli scholar and an authority in the fields of military history, military thought, and military strategy.
After studying at Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa in Israel, Gat completed his doctoral studies at All Souls College, Oxford University, where he was supervised by the renowned military historian Michael Howard.
Howard criticized the existing view that war was limited to the narrow meaning of armies and military operations, and argued for exploring the complex interaction between the two from the perspective of 'war and society.'
Gart shares Howard's view of war.

The author argues that for 1.99 million years, or 99.5 percent of the 2 million years that the genus Homo evolved, all humans lived as hunter-gatherers in nature, and that human biological evolution took place under the pressure of natural selection during this long period.
The cultural evolution that has been taking place breathlessly over the past 10,000 years, starting with agriculture, is only the tip of the iceberg in the overall evolution of humanity.
Therefore, the author begins by discussing how the human nature and motivations associated with fighting evolved in hunter-gatherer societies and what the patterns of primitive warfare were like, saying that to examine the biological evolution closely related to human fighting, we must look back to the past two million years.

Rousseau vs. Hobbes: 'Noble Savage' or 'War of All Against All'?

Modern people generally see the struggle for survival of animals and the wars of nations as being on entirely different levels.
However, the author argues that hunter-gatherer fights were not much different from those of other animals.
This counterintuitive assertion is the central thesis of Part I: that hunter-gatherers were no exception to nature's universal law of competing for survival and reproduction.
So, it was not Rousseau, who imagined the 'noble savage', but Hobbes, who assumed that people in the state of nature waged a 'war of all against all', who was closer to the truth.
The 'peaceful savage' was a myth, fighting was rife among hunter-gatherer groups, raids and counter-attacks were commonplace, and death in combat was the leading cause of death.
The authors also argue that biological mechanisms that evolved in hunter-gatherer environments continue to drive human behavior with strong emotional stimuli in other artificial and cultural environments.
The natural hostility of humans to be wary and suspicious of outside groups originated in the potential conflict situations of hunter-gatherer life, but it also served as the source of the 'prisoner's dilemma', the 'security dilemma', and the endless arms race in later, very different environments.

The Interaction of Cultural Evolution and War

Part II delves into the interplay between cultural evolution and war.
Beginning about 10,000 years ago, with the adoption of agriculture, human groups expanded and diversified from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural societies, pastoral and nomadic societies, tribal societies, chieftaincies, small states, city-states, empires, and modern nation-states, each with a different lifestyle and scale.
This was a major shift away from the 'evolutionary state of nature'.
The overall trend of these changes was the accumulation, concentration, and institutionalization of wealth and power, and the resulting stratification of society, and the primary and essential means of acquiring wealth and power was force.
The author vividly demonstrates that in any political system, armed forces are the core of power; that without a solid military base, external attacks and internal usurpations of power cannot be prevented; and that there is a close correlation between the growth of power and armed forces.
In particular, the author analyzes that the state opened a new chapter in war by transforming groups of warriors into armies, raising funds through taxes, and directly training and organizing the military.

The rapid and remarkable mutual transformation of wealth and power in modern times

Part 3 deals with the mutual transformation and effects of the rapid increase in wealth and power in the modern era.
The author cites the mutual transformation of wealth and power as a new phenomenon of the modern era. He argues that while such transformation was unclear until pre-modern times, in the modern era a virtuous cycle mechanism was formed in which wealth creates power and power creates wealth.
In relation to war, wealth was the money for war, and war brought more wealth.
And as technologically advanced military hardware began to determine the outcome of wars, a suitable technological and social foundation was needed to produce and operate military hardware.
Thus, productivity and military power became inseparable, and economically advanced countries emerged as military powers.
The author focuses on the capitalist economies and advanced militaries that developed in the West in the modern era, examining how they destroyed and replaced existing economic and military organizations on a global scale.

Military Revolution, Democratic Peace Theory, and Unconventional Terrorism

This book also delves into the 'military revolution,' democratic peace theory, and unconventional terrorism, which have been hot topics of debate in academic circles.
While the author agrees with the existing thesis that revolutionary changes occurred across the military in modern Europe, such as the rapid increase in the size of armies and the introduction of firearms, which transformed the nature of field warfare and siege warfare, he points out that the military revolution did not stem from some tactical development, but was an element of the modernization process that swept through Europe.
Furthermore, the author synthesizes existing debates on the democratic peace theory, which holds that liberal democratic nations rarely fight among themselves, and argues that democratization and liberalization were not short-term transitions but rather arduous processes; that the standards of democracy and liberalism have steadily risen, and that democratic peace has deepened accordingly; and that economic development is also a major factor in democratic peace.
Finally, the author sees unconventional terrorism as a new modern phenomenon resulting from the combination of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism.
The author points out that the root of the problem is the penetration of weapons of mass destruction technology and materials below the national level, and proposes a global cooperative crackdown as a way to combat unconventional terrorism that is not constrained by mutually assured destruction.

Praise poured in for this book

The best book on this subject! By far the best book I've read on the topic of civilization and war.
The author combines insights from diverse fields, including anthropology, evolutionary biology, psychology, archaeology, economics, history, and international relations, in a refreshingly holistic approach.
This highly objective book relies on data (both qualitative and quantitative) collected from social science disciplines, and the author does not moralize or justify the subject of war.
(…) It is easy to read, interesting, and very thorough.
I've read a lot of social science books, but this one has had the greatest impact on my understanding of human nature and human civilization in a broad sense.
(…) a true masterpiece and recommended to anyone interested in learning about the relationship between human civilization and history and war.
_Amazon Reader Akhilesh Pillalamarri

It's a 5-star rating! A must-read for senior military experts! It's truly a book of shock and awe! You'll be astonished once again by this masterpiece, filled with Azza Gat's pure intellect.
I have always been impressed by Gatt's other books on war.
But as someone who served in active duty for 28 years and has a library of over 1,000 books on various military topics, no book has impressed me as deeply as this one, which comprehensively addresses the "mystery of war" from a multidisciplinary perspective.
(…) I am now convinced that all senior officers should study the broad scope of warfare with this kind of knowledgeable, multidisciplinary approach.
The perspective of this book is by no means a 'just any old' standard view of war.
Any truly open-minded reader will be compelled to read this book and re-evaluate every aspect of the war.
I believe this book is a seminal text that will begin to re-educate and re-evaluate so-called "modern" beliefs, motivations, policies, strategies, operations, and tactics regarding war.
Every high-ranking official in the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the CIA, and the FBI should be required to read this book.
This book should be required reading in all staff training colleges and military universities.
_Amazon Reader, i-Palikar

The term "thorough" is often overused to describe the breadth and depth of one's knowledge.
But it is no exaggeration to say that this book is thorough in its description.
The scope and level of research across multiple disciplines is truly impressive.
_Amazon Reader, Michael