Amid the genocides of the Uyghurs and Rohingya and the persistent terror of Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda, it is clear that our efforts to stop these murderous scourges have largely failed. Leaders declare, “Never again!” But the global reality is “Ever again.”

Perhaps we should ask, “What really causes these horrific outbreaks of violence?” Conventional wisdom blames genocides on “ancient hatreds” and explains terrorism as a response to both poverty and the legacy of Western colonialism. In this view, mass killings are the inevitable outcomes of impersonal forces, leaving little space for prevention. But these popular causation theories are profoundly wrong.