Peace as a System for Exploiting the World

Every major historical transformation has been based on a shift in rationality: - Slavery became morally and economically untenable. - Colonialism ceased to be justifiable. - Empires gave way to nation-states. Perhaps we're at the dawn of a new threshold: When conflict becomes economically irrational. When the dividends of peace outweigh the perceived benefits of war, the system will tip over. This book explores the conditions of this tipping point: - Manifest, because it asserts that a shift is possible.-Academic, because it is based on rigorous formalization. It implicitly dialogues with the tradition of political thought, from Thomas Hobbes to Hannah Arendt, and with contemporary peace studies represented by Johan Galtung. But it introduces a break: peace is no longer simply analyzed, it is optimized.