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

In a zero-sum game, the problem is entirely one of distribution, not at all one of production.

If we are to have peace, we must learn loyalty to a larger group. And before we can learn loyalty, the thing to which we are to be loyal must be created.

Asking who won a given war, someone has said, is like asking who won the San Francisco earthquake. That in war there is no victory but only varying degrees of defeat is a proposition that has gained increasing acceptance in the twentieth century.

No system of balance functions automatically.

According to the first image of international relations, the locus of the important causes of war is found in the nature and behavior of man. Wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity.

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