War between nation states — and the genocides and atrocities that came with it — is largely a thing of the past.
In the late 1940s, after the end of World War II, almost 25 people per year died violent deaths in battle. That number has fallen to less than 5, with a recent uptick due to the Syrian Civil War, according to Pinker.
And in terms of genocide, it appears we as a society really did learn a lesson from the Holocaust. The rate of death due to genocide has cratered since the 1940s, from well over 350 per 100,000 at its peak, to well under 5 today, according to Pinker.
The reason for this is because war, as conventionally defined, is largely illegal. Prior to the era of international bodies like the United Nations and complex, multi-party trade agreements, the old adage about warfare rang true:
"Might made right, war was the continuation of policy by other means, and to the victor went the spoils," writes Pinker.
Today, the world's nations have committed to not pursuing warfare for territorial gains or policy objectives, unless it is in self-defense or with the blessing of the UN's Security Council. While war still exists within states, and against non-state actors like terrorist groups — and the norm is sometimes breached — traditional warfare between states is largely a thing of the past.