In his brand new book The End of War, John Horgan argues that war isn't inherent in human nature and can disappear if enough people want it to disappear. I just did a Bloggingheads dialogue with Horgan, and we wound up discussing whether there could ever be a plausible 'peace candidate' for president (which leads us, in the last couple of minutes of this clip, to a discussion of the role of religion in war and peace):

On post-dialogue reflection, I fear that a viable third-party peace candidate is unlikely. The natural constituency would consist mainly of (a) Republicans who are very fiscally conservative, including libertarians; and (b) Democrats who are in the left wing of their party not just on foreign policy but, typically, on domestic policy. It's hard to imagine a domestic policy platform that both groups could stand on. Anyway, back to Horgan's book: It's a brisk, uplifting read. Here's an excerpt that just appeared on The Atlantic.