Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.

It is not true that were the Soviet Union to disappear the remaining states could easily live in peace.

Each state pursues its own interest's, however defined, in ways it judges best. Force is a means of achieving the external ends of states because there exists no consistent, reliable process of reconciling the conflicts of interest that inevitably arise among similar units in a condition of anarchy.

The most important causes of political arrangements and acts are found in the nature and behavior of man.

Then what explains war among states? Rousseau's answer is really that war occurs because there is nothing to prevent it.

To build a theory of international relations on accidents of geography and history is dangerous.

No system of balance functions automatically.