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Mid-Atlantic - conversations about US, UK and world politics

The End of War? The Possibility of a World Without Conflict - John Horgan

·1 hr 2 min·5 clips
Author John Horgan argues war is a solvable scientific problem, not an inherent part of human biology.
Host Roifield Brown introduces the episode from Birmingham, focusing on war as a central human issue. Guest John Horgan, author of 'The End of War,' explains his thesis that war is a solvable scientific problem, not biologically predetermined. Horgan reflects on how his optimism has waned since the book's 2012 publication, citing the rise of leaders like Donald Trump and ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He discusses the democratic peace theory but acknowledges its flaws, especially regarding U.S. militarism and its global influence. The conversation turns to the morality of war, with Horgan condemning the killing of civilians, particularly children, as indefensible. He references Tolstoy's shift from fatalism to advocating nonviolence, which inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The host counters by arguing that economic inequality and resource asymmetry, not militarism, are primary drivers of conflict, using examples like U.S. economic hegemony and rising inequality in the West. Horgan responds by linking militarism to wasted resources that could address social grievances, while also discussing capitalism's role and his teaching methods, including assigning Marx's Communist Manifesto. The episode concludes with Horgan urging listeners to reject war's inevitability and consider nonviolent solutions.

As heard by us

A searching discussion of nonviolence, military force, and the political pressures that keep conflict alive.

A world without war first sounds like a neat moral proposition. Here, though, Roy Field Brown and John Hogan keep testing that idea against harder cases: Britain and France's early restraint in the Second World War, the civil rights movement's use of images, and the bombing and…

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Why you'd press play

You want to test whether an argument for ending war can survive contact with Gaza, civil rights history, and military power.

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