ABSTRACT
This chapter serves to re-introduce the arguments made in Man, the State and War (MSW). Kenneth Waltz starts his discussion of the causes of war with the 'first image', the 'lowest' level, the individual: 'wars result from selfishness, from misdirected aggressive impulses, from stupidity. If other causes of war were secondary, just the need to understand human nature would arise in order to explain and eradicate the occurrence of violence. The international environment becomes the permissive cause of war. International anarchy is one explanation for war, but not alone. Men, also, are 'ambitious, vindictive and rapacious'. Waltz, however dismisses human nature as the predominant or sole cause of war for the reasons of its complexity: 'human nature is so complex that it can justify every hypothesis we may entertain' and 'to say that man acts in ways contrary to his nature is prima facie absurd'.
