Also, the Aes Sedai are simply another manifestation of the need for survival. Even though administration and politics are denigrated in these types of series, where swords and brawn are prized above communication, it seems to me that the survival skill the Aes Sedai specialized in was politics and maintaining some form of group cohesion in the Westlands.

This can be seen in the fact that, in the grand scheme of channeling skills, strengths and Talents, none of these things formed the core mission statement of the Tower; they are factors in the hierarchy, but the overall mission is to hold the Western nations together to oppose the Shadow.

If the Aes Sedai politics were so negative and unneccessary, their power would have dwindled a long time ago, and the Westlands would look like a very different place. Artur Hawkwing would not have even been born, because it was the female Aes Sedai that lead the opposition during the Trolloc Wars.