Animal Combat

To follow up my post on the norms of warfare, just a quick point, courtesy of Helen. "I find the non-military alternatives to war to be way more interesting. It's like displays of plumage." Precisely! Animals sometimes engage in costly displays of strength and health to establish which one is superior (usually for mating purposes). The animals could theoretically fight, but even when they do, they usually take care to do no permanent damage (of course, I'm talking about intra-species fights, not predator/prey fights). The point is, when signalling is an important aspect of the activity (as it can be in fighting), there might be stable equilibria in which limited fighting is the best strategy for all parties involved. A low blow might win you the fight, but it loses you the war because you have failed to demonstrate actual superiority of strength. This, I think, is the driving force behind the behavior I identified in my "Norms of Warfare" post.