> Why would anyone honor the results of a war in a controlled setting? Obviously it won't work every time. But we do have controlled settings to settle dispute

> Why would anyone honor the results of a war in a controlled setting? Obviously it won't work every time. But we do have controlled settings to settle disputes. Previously if two different persons thought they ought to control a country they gathered troops and fought it out. Nowadays in many modern countries we try to channel these disputes into "voting" and "democracy". Similarly in days of yore if your boy disrespected mine we got a good blood feud on our hand. Nowadays we try to channel similar disputes into lawsuits. The range of conflicts and disputes we settle with force vs the ones we settle with simulated violence is not fixed. Why do people, very powerful ones tend to agree to use democracy or lawsuit instead of unrestrained violence? Because we arranged the circumstances such that to do otherwise would impart a greater risk and cost on them. And that is the same how we can make anyone honour the result of a "war in controlled setting".