Franco Fornari theorizes warfare as the voluntary destruction of previously accumulated reserves of "human capital” performed with the intention to “sacrifice a certain number of lives.”

Comparing war to potlatch, he describes this institution as a series of acts of “ostentatious destruction” whose aim is to intimidate the rival and, ultimately, “give prestige to the donor.” A nation gains prestige by virtue of its willingness to give away its most precious gift: the life of a human body.