External pressure seems to produce internal unity.

In anarchy there is no automatic harmony .

Each man does seek his own interest, but, unfortunately, not according to the dictates of reason.

War most often promotes the internal unity of each state involved. The state plagued by internal strife may then, instead of waiting for the accidental attack, seek the war that will bring internal peace.

To solve these problems one needs as much an understanding of politics as an understanding of man - and the one cannot be derived from the other.

War may achieve a redistribution of resources, but labor, not war, creates wealth.

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