We’ve grown accustomed to the idea that war is natural and inevitable; that force is necessary for maintaining order and – amazingly – for cultivating peace.

In the best of times the threat of war curls around us like toxic smoke, yet we can’t imagine a world without it.

War, we’re told, goes back to the dawn of humanity and further still to our ancestors newly descended from the trees. It’s in our DNA, and we can’t escape it any more than we can escape language or walking upright.

Seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes reckoned that man in his natural state was murderous and selfish, living in “a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”

Were it not for imposed civilization as Hobbes knew it, human life would be “solitary, nasty, brutish, and short”.

Another key piece of the narrative is that war and peace are men’s business. Women play only supporting roles.

These ideas have become the heart and soul of how we think about war and peace. Yet, no matter how many wars we wage, lasting peace eludes us.

This thinking permeates our political, social, economic, and environmental foundations.

Super-myths are cultural conventions so overarching that they define a people.

The myth of war has come to define us, and the cost is catastrophic. The 20th century was the bloodiest century in history with over 150 million deaths due to war, according to a Cornell University study.

And yet, scientific evidence shows that pre-agricultural peoples relied on cooperation, peacefulness, generosity, and equality of the sexes as the successful strategies for survival.

For our pre-agricultural forebears, group violence was the last resort, not the first.

The first step in creating a sustainable peace is to unravel when and why this shift occurred. At the same time, as the United Nations urges, we need to recognize the critical role that women play in fostering and maintaining sustainable peace.