Great-power war is back on the global agenda. What can international peacemakers do about it?
The Pentagon’s recently released National Defense Strategy declares that the U.S. should concentrate more on strategic competition with China and Russia than on terrorism. The latest edition of The Economist, a bellwether of liberal internationalist thought, focuses on the risk of a major-power war. False nuclear alerts sparked panic in Hawaii and Japan earlier this month.
Western military types fear that they are out of sync with these threats. U.S. commanders are telling their troops to get ready for a big war. Their European allies wonder if their threadbare armed forces are ready to tackle a Russian attack. But if the world’s warriors are preparing for war, are peacemakers keeping pace?