Are Wars Necessary?

Article By Sabine Leitner

posted by Kurush Dordi, July 31, 2026

As if we did not already have enough wars, the year 2026 has brought an explosion of further conflicts: millions more people displaced; homes, hospitals and vital infrastructure reduced to rubble; an economic impact that will probably be felt for years; not even mentioning the death of innocent civilians, amongst them many children. Why are we humans doing this to each other? Has humanity learnt nothing from all the atrocities we ourselves unleashed?

There are people who say that wars will always exist because of the way human beings are, with our competitive spirit, desires, ego-attachments, fears, destructive impulses, etc. And there are others who believe that a future without wars is possible because we humans can evolve and reach a stage where we will be able to solve our conflicts in a mature way. I believe both views are right.

As human beings we all carry two competing tendencies within ourselves: an instinctual side (our limbic system) that impels us to act out of self-interest, and a rational side (the prefrontal cortex) that allows us to project ourselves into the future, have a sense of morality and act from values. It is not so utopian to say that as a self-conscious species we have the potential to create a peaceful future where we will live in harmony with others and with nature.

Collectively, both these human sides are simultaneously at work. On the one hand we invent ever more dangerous ways to cause destruction; on the other hand, we are developing international laws on war and human rights, institutions like the United Nations, and we make real and sincere efforts towards diplomacy, conflict mediation and post-war reconciliation between former enemies. These last examples didn’t exist, or weren’t as developed, in previous times. So, there is progress!

It is the human condition to be torn between these two sides within, a tension which Goethe’s Faust immortalized as: “Two souls, alas! reside within my breast”. And possibly the most famous text about this internal battle is the Bhagavad Gita, which is widely understood as an allegory for the human psyche and its two warring factions of the ‘Higher Self’ and the ‘Lower Self’.

So, are wars necessary? Strictly speaking ‘no’. They are not inevitable because they are caused by us and could therefore be prevented. However, from a different perspective, it seems that we are destined to repeat our errors until the lessons we need to learn are fully integrated into our character. Why do addicts continue with their addictive behaviour despite knowing that it is not only very harmful to them but also their families? Why do we all sometimes ‘overdo’ things (eating, drinking, spending money, wasting time, etc) when we actually know the consequences?

It is like the scenario in the film Groundhog Day. As long as we are caught in the loop of acting from our lower self, things won’t change. It is only when we will be able to replace our egocentricity and our reactive impulses with the wisdom of the higher self – i.e. forethought, long-term thinking, empathy, impulse control, etc. – that we will be able to get out of the loop, and then ‘a new day’ will finally dawn.

Consider this analogy: children often respond to conflict by hitting each other because they haven’t yet developed better ways to manage disagreement. We recognise this as a temporary developmental stage, which will gradually be replaced by more mature forms of conflict resolution. But at the level of societies and nations, it seems we have not yet overcome this stage. Our collective ethical ‘tools’ are by far less developed than our technology, and we still rely on force to solve conflicts.

Outer wars are, in this analogy, the ‘macro’ version of the ‘micro’ struggle between the higher and lower tendencies within individuals. The current state of our world is the result of billions of people (myself included) who have not fully mastered their own egos living together on this planet and competing for finite resources. In the long term, we won’t be able to overcome outer wars without addressing our inner condition as individuals. Of course, individual maturity will not immediately produce collective maturity, but a coherent minority – a kind of critical mass – could generate the momentum needed to move humanity forward. In that sense, each of us has a role to play.

Ervin Laszlo, the American philosopher of science, systems theorist and classical pianist, writes in his 2023 book The Survival Imperative: “We have reached a critical juncture in our evolution on the planet. Now we face a survival challenge: evolve or perish.”

The long-term future of humanity will lie in the outcome of our own inner battle…

 

 

 

 

 

This article is the editorial piece written by Sabine Leitner, Director of New Acropolis UK for Issue 74

( May- Jun 2026)  of the New Acropolis Magazine.

Image Credits: By The Metropolitan Museum of Art | CC BY PD

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