Warfare has been an enduring if dismal aspect of humankind's development - Down to today when the elite-led construction of international relations has come to be primarily based on competition and conflict. The world now teeters on the edge of a possible thermonuclear conflagration. This book offers an overview of the history of warfare and seeks to identify the primary underlying causes of conflict. This in order to provide a genealogical context for addressing the question... Is war inevitable? And to consider whether we are destined to destroy the human race, or can we together construct an alternative future? A future infused with hope for peace between peoples and the purpose that can achieve this aspiration.