It occurs to me that this last 1/2 century or so has been globally pretty peaceful. And I wondered if it might even be one of the MOST peaceful 50 years we’ve had.
I’m inclined to imagine that the Cold War might have kept a lid on larger military aspirations. What do you think, am I deluded?
If we define the end of the Cold War as the collapse of the Soviet Union, that was over 30 years now. Considering other potential flashpoints (e.g., India and Pakistan), I’d say it’s more nuclear deterrence in general. No one wants to be the first to get into sustained conventional, symmetrical warfare with nukes on both sides.
We also seem to be seeing a shift in soft power. Now that raw footage of conflict is readily recorded and broadly accessible, regimes aren’t able to control messaging like they used to be. Still need public support to wage war, and it’s that much harder to obtain when people can see the faces of the people you’re killing.
Not to mention no one wants to be the one to start a nuclear exchange, as that would effectively wipe out both participants nations wholeheartedly, and the populations that remains would inherit a wasteland.