Researchers from Abo Academy University in Finland have conducted a study of isolated peoples living in different parts of the world over the last century. In the study, the researchers found that “war”, as an institution, accounts for very few of the deaths in such societies. By analogy, the researchers speculate that, since these peoples live out lives that are roughly comparable to the early days of human societies, that war was not a common feature of human life. The conclusion is an interesting insight into the famous “nature-nurture” debate: that human aggression is a learned and not an innate behavior.
Most states conveniently forget previous foreign policies when the tide of history proves that those policies were, in fact, abhorrent. In my lifetime, the most egregious case (thus far) of historical revisionism in the US is on the issue of US-South African relations. Most people do not know how powerfully the US supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, and one would never guess given the current strong support for the new governments. The posted article gives an insight into parts of that revisionism, but it is a serious mistake to think that it was just Republicans that supported the racist regime. In the formulation of foreign policy, all statespeople should try to determine, as much as is possible, not only what is morally correct, but in what direction the arc of justice points.
US Secretary of State Kerry announced today that the moribund negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would restart next week. The announcement comes after four months of diplomacy, and all the leaks surrounding those negotiations tended to downplay the prospect of renewed negotiations. The announcement was very cautiously worded, and it is unclear what the terms of the negotiations are. Nonetheless, any negotiations are to be welcomed. We will learn much more next week.
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