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Chagnon, Wrangham and Glowacki and others have also shown that individuals, as well as the group, may gain significant reputational and reproductive advantages of participation in warfare. Core Assumptions of Realism (5) 1. We find that these precise traits are not only evolutionarily adaptive but also empirically common across the animal kingdom, especially in primate and human societies. Recently, a 10-year conflict in the Kibale Mountains of Uganda came to an end. for this article. Therefore, even the strongest advocates of group selection, such as David Sloan Wilson, argue that, in any given case, it remains an empirical question as to whether or not the selection pressures acting at the level of individuals are outweighed by selection pressures potentially acting at the level of the group (so called multi-level selection). Rathbun, Brian C. Humans may pursue self-interest and power by many means, including, for example, patience and reciprocity as well as coercion and violence. Offensive realism holds that states are disposed to competition and conflict because they are self-interested, power maximizing, and fearful of other states. George C. Williams famously made this point in response to so called nave group selectionists of the time, and his insight has continued to be reiterated to biology students ever since.Reference Williams189. For example, a group seeking a fixed source of water may be unable to trade for it if the group lacks adequate resources to offer in exchange. So, while the natural sciences recognize the remarkable sociality and mutual dependence exhibited by the human species, these sciences are also unified in recognizing the selective advantages of self-interest and power. Thus, humans may consider other variables, such as the possibility of future trade or cooperation, when assessing outgroups. Theorists have had to explain how cooperation could occur in the face of significant individual self-interest, the difficulties of collective-action, and the free-rider problem.Reference Boyd175,Reference Olson176,Reference Ostrom177 Special conditions are needed for cooperation to emerge and remain stable among unrelated individuals.178,Reference Sigmund179 Typically, those special conditions are ones that make helping advantageous to the genes responsible for the behavior. Fourth, we have argued that evolutionary insights closely match offensive realism among existing theories of international relations. Second, critics of offensive realism point to countering factors such as the democratic peace or international institutions. His current work focuses on evolutionary dynamics, evolutionary psychology, and religion in human conflict and cooperation. Waltzs core concept in Theory of International Politics is the anarchy that reigns in world politics. The fact that human evolution occurred under conditions of anarchy, that we evolved as hunter-gatherers in an ecological setting of predation, resource competition, and intergroup conflict, and that humans have been subject to natural selection for millions of years has profound consequences for understanding human behavior, not least how humans perceive and act toward others.