An acclaimed expert on violence and seasoned peacebuilder explains the five reasons why conflict (rarely) blooms into war, and how to interrupt that deadly process.

'Nothing could be more relevant today than war and peace. Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace by Christopher Blattman is an outstanding and original book on this topic.' Martin Wolf, Financial Times

It's easy to overlook the underlying strategic forces of war, to see it solely as a series of errors, accidents, and emotions gone awry. It's also easy to forget that war shouldn't happen - and most of the time it doesn't. Around the world there are millions of hostile rivalries, yet only a tiny fraction erupt into violence. Too many accounts of conflict forget this.

Why We Fight draws on decades of economics, political science, psychology, and real-world interventions to lay out the root causes and remedies for war, showing that violence is not the norm; that there are only five reasons why conflict wins over compromise; and how peacemakers turn the tides through tinkering, not transformation.

Details: Non-fiction, published 2022.

Format: Hard cover, 400 pages.

Dimensions: 22.3 cm (h) x 14.6 cm (w) x 3.7 cm (d) / 543 grams.