English 1100: Critical Analysis of Peace by John Horgan

This essay provides a critical analysis of John Horgan's article, "Does Peace Have a Chance?" Horgan questions whether the tendency for war is inherent in human nature. The analysis summarizes Horgan's argument, which posits that war's impact lies more in its prolonged existence over 12,000 years than in its deadliness. Horgan challenges the notion that war is an unavoidable part of human nature, pointing to a decline in war casualties as a potential sign of the end of international conflict. The essay discusses the role of nationalism and xenophobia as driving forces behind war, tracing their development alongside human civilization. It supports Horgan's viewpoint that war emerged around 12,000 years ago due to changing environmental and cultural conditions rather than inherent human nature, citing historical evidence and the impact of civilization on human aggressiveness. The essay concludes by highlighting Horgan's assertion that neither war nor peace is inevitable, noting recent global efforts towards maintaining peace despite ongoing security threats.

Running head: Critical analysis of “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John Horgan
Critical analysis of “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John Horgan
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1Running head: Critical analysis of “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John Horgan
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Critical analysis of “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John Horgan
In the article named, “Does Peace Have a Chance”, author John Horgan raised question
whether susceptibility to war is entrenched within human nature or not. Hence, the study will be
conducting a critical summary of the article. Before proceeding to the critical analysis part, it
needs to be mentioned that Horgan stated in the article that the deadliness of the wars is less
impactful than their existence for over the 12000 years. In addition, he also stated that things
could have been better.
The author gives a background description from which he was encouraged to analyze
whether susceptibility to war is entrenched within human nature or not. Horgan mentions a sign
at the entrance of war museum with inscription stating that undoubtedly war making is nothing
but part of human nature which will continue since nations tends to impose their will on its
people. The author remarks that statement as questionable and mentioned that the decline in the
casualties caused by war might indicate to the end of international war.
Generally nationalism is originated from the areas that are highly populated and
xenophobia which refers to the feeling of within a group of people that they are great than other
group f people is considered to be the root cause of nationalism. To be more specific, when
certain group of people start overestimating themselves than people of other people nationalism

2Running head: Critical analysis of “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John Horgan
takes its place as it denotes self obsession that ‘we are great”. Thus, the author rightly claimed
that "there is little or no clear-cut evidence of lethal group aggression among any societies prior
to 12,000 years ago,” since 12000 years back, the sense of nationalism did not originated among
human beings. History marks the timeline 12000 years back as the inception of human
civilization. History claims that the first was began in Mesopotamia somewhere around 2700
BEC between Sumer and Elam proving Horgan’s statement, “war emerged and rapidly spread
over the next few thousand years among hunter-gatherers and other groups, particularly in
regions where people abandoned a nomadic lifestyle for a more sedentary one and populations
grew. War arose, according to this perspective, because of changing environmental and cultural
conditions rather than because of 'human nature’."
The development of xenophobia that refers to the notion of considering us as greater than
they gradually developed since the beginning of civilization. Whether the community of barbaric
tribe living in the river banks of an ancient civilization or the civilization of 20th century,
xenophobia remains the driving force of war. History witnesses that whether the primitive
society or the community of Muslim bigots, the dehumanization of so called uncivilized tribal
people has always been one of the indirect influential factors of war. As a result of such negative
outlook upon a certain portion of the society triggers the thought of nationalism among the group
of people who consider themselves as greater than others and leads to war ultimately. Hence, it is
apt to state that Horgan’s viewpoint of beginning of war trend 12000 years ago is to a wider
extent appropriate.
As seen the more people has been civilized the more they became ruthless. The history
itself evidently shows that the invention of nuclear science resulted in the death of millions of
people; rather it destroyed a whole country. Thus, with civilization the feeling of competitiveness

3Running head: Critical analysis of “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John Horgan
and aggressiveness give origin to the tendency of pressing other group people and this will
continue as human civilization is prone to become more intelligent over the time.
Moran at the end of his article stated that neither war nor peace is inevitable. Over the
very recent years threats to security and peace were seen increasingly all over the world. The
most developed countries like China, United States, Russia and others were seen to have spent
more on the modern weapons to use against each other. However, the past 5-10 years show that
the large countries agreed upon mutual agreement of not forging war in order to retain global
peace.
Hence, it can be concluded that the article named “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John
Horgan has appropriately shed light on the relationship between war and human nature. The
above discussion in this regard has shown with reference of history that war trend dates back to
12000 years ago.

4Running head: Critical analysis of “Does Peace Have a Chance?” by John Horgan
References
Horgan, J. 2018. Slate’s Use of Your Data. [online] Slate Magazine. Available at:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/08/wars-are-not-inevitable.html [Accessed 3 Oct.
2018].