ABSTRACT
Violence and war are unnatural behaviors for humans, and could be reduced or even prevented if only the evils brought on by civilization could be undone. Thus warfare can be expected and possibly even welcomed as one means to establish increasing control, or at least as an inevitable byproduct of the process. There is a tendency to treat the reality of war as if it were an exception to the natural way of things; a cosmic mistake that somehow might be rectified simply by realizing that war and violence are bad. War and violence are also a part of the human condition, and they can be understood as natural social processes, just like crime, racism, disease, and other human ills. Bemoaning war and violence is simply not enough; they ought to be acknowledged squarely as a side of human existence. The discipline of sociology has something unique to offer students of war and peace.
