Bellum omnium contra omnes

A discussion of war, in Ukraine, Gaza and at the global level

In his seminal work of political philosophy Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes described a chaotic and violent world in the so-called ‘state of nature’ before the establishment of social and political structures. His famous characterisation of the “life of Man” in this world as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” has been quoted endlessly over the years. …