bobert...ever hear of "54/40 or fight"? That was the US battle cry after Lewis and Clark declared the latitude and longitude of the US north western border with Canada upon their survey of the Louisiana Purchase. Britain refused to accept this, because they coveted the harbors in and around Vancouver and present-day Seattle. I'm fairly sure a limited war was fought in the area before resolving the issue.

Primitive hunter-gatherer societies seem,in some cases,to have been able to live together peaceably side by side when an over-abundance of resources were available, so that tribal competition was minimized. Historically, as these tribes developed into kingdoms, the accompanying demand for resources to meet growing population needs increased pressure to dominate or absorb neighboring tribes or kingdoms. As kingdoms reached the status of nation-states, the need for the expansion of territory and power has historically increased. Periods of expansion and war have been limited not by communication and compromise (Chamberlain and Hitler), but by military defeat and domination by a power which imposes peace from above and according to its own terms.

Now, it may be that the population of the world today stands apart from all other people in the history of this world in regard to war and peace, but I certainly see no signs of it. My deduction is that we have a simple choice : be aware of the history of human interaction as demonstrated over thousands of years and make the very best of it, or believe in the general peaceful nature and good will of humans toward one another and proceed in a well-intentioned but completely ineffectual way.