The Future of War Quotes

“Since the 1648 ‘Peace of Westphalia’, which concluded the deadly Thirty Years War, it was understood that the best way to avoid war was for states to mind their own business.”
― Lawrence Freedman, The Future of War: A History

“This had come together as a ‘civilising process’.12 The contributing factors were: ‘gentle commerce’ encouraging trusting relationships across boundaries; ‘feminisation’, as women were less belligerent than men; an ‘expanding circle of sympathy’, as more cosmopolitan societies could not dismiss the pain and feelings of others as irrelevant or demonize them as subhuman; and, lastly, ‘the escalator of reason’, allowing for an intelligent, educated critique of claims that might once have been used to justify appalling practices.”
― Lawrence Freedman, The Future of War: A History

“In his riposte, Weinberger offered his own warning, this time of the dangers of getting too involved in what he called ‘gray area conflicts’. His tests for US engagement in these conflicts required that it be vital to national interests and a last resort, and that when combat troops were used this should be ‘wholeheartedly, and with the clear intention of winning’ and with ‘some reasonable assurance of the support of the American people and their elected representatives in Congress’.”
― Lawrence Freedman, The Future of War: A History

“In 2012 a petition was placed on the White House’s website urging that a real Death Star be built in order to stimulate the economy and defend the nation. The Obama Administration offered three reasons for rejecting the petition. First, the cost would be $850,000,000,000,000,000. Second, it was not policy to blow up planets. Third, why ‘spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”
― Lawrence Freedman, The Future of War: A History