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Why are we willing to die for our countries? How can ideology persuade someone to blow themselves up?
When we go to war, morality, religion and ideology often take the blame. But Mike Martin boldly argues that the opposite is true: rather than driving violence, these things help to reduce it. While we resort to ideas and values to justify or interpret warfare, something else is really propelling us towards conflict: our subconscious desires, shaped by millions of years of evolution.
Why We Fight will change the way we think about both violence and ourselves.
Watch a short introduction by the author below:
Mike Martin is a visiting research fellow at the Department of War Studies, King's College London, having previously studied biology at Oxford. Between these experiences, he served as a British Army officer in Afghanistan. His previous books include An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict and Crossing the Congo: Over Land and Water in a Hard Place, the latter of which was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Adventure Travel Writing Award in 2016.
"Fascinating [and] accessible [...] Martin's enjoyable book makes a positive contribution to a major debate"
– Prospect
"Why We Fight is an ingenious exposition of a long-standing philosophical problem and an evolutionary psychological explanation of war. It is an intriguing and unusual book."
– Parameters
"Why We Fight is a pivotal book in the study of conflict. It brilliantly deploys recent discoveries in psychology and neuroscience to devastating effect. It has radical implications for policies for conflict reduction: identity and status need to supplant interests and ideology as the focal points for change."
– Sir Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Oxford
"Anyone interested in war and international relations will find much to challenge and intrigue them in Mike Martin's application of evolutionary theory to the question of what drives men to fight."
– Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, author of The Future of War: A History
"An important and illuminating book that addresses very clearly the fundamental questions underlying the apparent paradoxes of violence and conflict."
– Patrick Hennessey, author of The Junior Officers' Reading Club: Killing Time and Fighting Wars
"This wide-ranging book explores how the evolution of the brain has shaped human behaviour in violence and war. Fascinating and insightful."
– Stathis Kalyvas, Gladstone Professor of Government, University of Oxford
"Why We Fight is a worthwhile and thought-provoking read, and Martin's framework offers a useful corrective to the 'war of ideas' school of thought that has driven so much Western counter-terrorism policy [...] If we want to reduce right-wing extremist violence, we would do well to heed his advice."
– Survival
"A much-needed, well-written, and well-substantiated work. [Mike Martin] manages to challenge some of the most common assumptions in the field of conflict studies. [Why We Fight] is a first, essential step into a more scientifically grounded social science and a challenge to several well-established academic theories."
– Strife Journal
