Military power back to the fore in the international arena?

[Julie4]

It's been years since military power took a back seat.

But today we're witnessing more and more regional tension on an international level: Ukraine-Russia, of course, but also the Middle East, Venezuela in America and so on.

Even countries like Germany and Japan have decided to devote significant resources to their military power.

As the former Deputy Secretary of Defense wrote in his book

" Physical force, especially the ability to kill, is the ultimate form of coercive leverage. While there are other sources of influence, such as wealth, persuasiveness, and charisma, they are all dominated by the power to kill. One with the ability to kill another can, if willing, escalate any dispute to that level and thus prevail. Although hard power is not the only form of power, it is dominant if effectively employed; hard power always has the capacity to dominate soft power.

Left unaddressed, might trumps right. Therefore, to protect its interests, the United States must be especially concerned about the use of physical force. "

[bobby_bush_eater]

To be fair I don't think it ever really took a back seat. When it comes to nation to nation conflict the big players all just recognize the capability for absolute destruction aside from nuclear power.

To alleviate this political and economic stances have become the new go to but only in lieu of military threat. If NATO doesn't exist does Russia stop at Ukraine? Do they use less force? In Israel hasn't both sides wanted to attack for a long time?

Unfortunately military power will always be how "empires" are maintained because political and economic power can ultimately only be sustained by the threat or through having a capable force.

[BCA6010]

It never took a backseat. People just didn't want to talk about it.

It's impossible to not talk about it now in regards to being a domestic security issue because of how badly the US has depleted hard to replace munitions, and years of deficient recruiting numbers. Internationally, wars are kicking off every month or two in countries you've never heard of because everyone knows that they can get away with it while the US and its allies are weak and distracted.

[LaFemmeFatale_1]

I find it absolutely stupid of human species, that we have to fight with each other, better equip for killing each other,

Deplete each other from the chance to live and love yet another day, just for the tiny bite of a land, that belong to the same place, we all share : Earth.

[RavVid]

It is hard not to see it that way. After WW2, the threat of nuclear war dominated. Sure there were proxy wars like Korea in which western powers directly conflicted with China but mostly the proxy wars were indirect conflict like Vietnam.

Now it does seem direct conventional warfare between peers is possible.

[love_conquers_lust]

Prisoner's dilemma, essentially. It's game theory.

But we're globalized more now than we've been in the past. It's more detrimental to ourselves to attack each other than it was decades ago. That's how comparative advantage works.

[Mettbltt]

If your army is strong, you will be listened to. If your army is bad, you will not care. The army is everything.

[Julie4]

But to have world-class military power, you need the resources and the economy to finance it. For example, the USA is the world's leading military power because it has the world's leading economy, which enables it to finance its military power.

[Mettbltt]

yes true

[Staximus]

Nothing has changed since the bronze age, we just have better weapons

[OddBeMe]

It’s funny that the US has been #1 for decades and we’re still uneasy. Like a scared person buying a gun. May not be what’s ailing us.

[Jamie05rhs]

Correct.