There is an old Indian fable of a maharajah and his chief adviser sitting playing chess. The maharajah asks his advisor about the deployment of the army to defeat the neighbouring maharajah. Instead of replying directly as to tactics the advisor asks him what he will do if he wins in a battle. The maharajah says he will take on the neighbour on the other side. Again the advisor asks what he will do if he wins against him, and so forth. They talk until the maharajah has defeated the whole of India and is supreme ruler. Asking the same question each time the maharajah become progressively the ruler of Asia, and finally the whole world. When asked what he would do then he replies that he would sit as he is sitting now and play chess with his advisor.
Why go through all that blood, warring and murder to do what we are already doing? Is the final question the advisor asks him.
So much of human politics is all about the will of a single male or group of males to be in charge. It is no different from any other higher mammal. The antagonisms of nations are no more than the chauvinism of tribes. Most people just want to live peaceably and find a little happiness, but the structures of our leaderships have evolved from times when brutish behaviour was all we had.
When we have conquered everything we can conquer. What then? Will we never allow reason to conquer us?