Via a ZeroHedge article of the same title is a link to an intriguing document entitled “Report from Iron Mountian: On the possibility and desirability of peace” (available here).

Section 5, The functions of War and Section 6, Substitutes for the functions of war lay out the Economic, Political, Sociological, Ecological and Cultural purposes of war itself and what could replace war but meet the same ends.

Summarising Section 6 – substitutes for war, (article here) we have the following :

Economic – Expenditures of resources for “completely nonproductive purposes” must be at a level similar to that achieved by war, must remain independent of the existing supply-and-demand economy, and must be under arbitrary political control.

Political – A “generalized external menace” must be maintained to promote acceptance of political authority.

Sociological – Institutions must be developed to maintain public fear of “personal destruction” the war system provides; fear that promotes adherence to societal values, and acceptance of the transcendence of such values over individual lives.

Ecological – Population control must be maintained to keep humans from threatening the species by reproducing beyond the carrying capacity of Earth’s biosphere.

Cultural and Scientific – Establishment of “a basis for sociomoral conflict” as powerful as war provides is important for determination of cultural values. Also, there must be a “sense of internal necessity” to motivate the quest for scientific knowledge.

We could fill in some those headings with the NHS (universal guaranteed healthcare is one example given in the full document), the War on Terror and fear of identity theft.

The full document is well worth a read if only for such gems as :

Pestilence, for example, is no longer an important factor in population control.

Until we get an outbreak of bird flu …