I reviewed Emily Wilson's interesting book The Death of Socrates some time ago here. For a different take on the same book, see Carlin Romano's 'Socrates in the 21st Century' (yet another good link from the wonderful Arts and Letters Daily).
Is war inevitable, given the human condition? What causes human agression? For Plato's Socrates it comes from innate tendencies nurtured in the wrong way. And that's where war comes from. Angie Hobbs gives a fascinating introduction to this aspect of Plato's Republic in this episode of Philosophy Bites.