Pronounced day taunt, and literally, they taunt us and we taunt them. Almost every morning in the online news aggregator I check in on with my first cup of coffee of the day is at least one article about new aggression between simmering adversaries and some new weapon, weapon advance, new battlefield strategy or planned war related construction. The biggest industry on the planet is war. That’s where the money is. AI, the most rapidly expanding technology, is being used for a lot of purposes already and war is one of it’s biggest customers in design, planning and development.
What you don’t hear much of is when some war somewhere ends. Usually they don’t, they just keep going but at a much lower volume level and peace talk is not what their media wants us to hear.
Weapons and weapon systems, as well as strategies, have to be tested in real situations, so it’s necessary to have real wars to test them with. Ukraine and Lebanon have proven to be wonderful test beds for new weapons and improvement of older ones, while enriching the weapons factories. The arms industry of Israel has become world famous for the high quality of their weaponry, both offensive and defensive. Other nations not directly involved in these wars are also reaping benefits, like Turkey with their drones which they sell to 34 countries across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Ukraine is a big customer of Turkish drones, using money donated by NATO nations and the USA, so of course the technology involved is rapidly expanding along with their increasing sales. There’s lots of nations that want to take over their neighbors and drones are proving the cheapest way to bring a lesser competitor to their knees. Even Russia is finding this out, too late, as Ukraine is doing much better, much faster than them at developing and fielding faster and more autonomous drones capable of carrying larger and more devastating explosives, with the result that Russia’s most vital economic infrastructure is being destroyed far faster than they can repair or replace it.
The profits end when the wars do unless you own the construction companies that will rebuild after the war and be paid with loans from a non-adversary, like the USA, that are secured by large tracts of land as collateral. In either nation, the winner or the loser or both, it doesn’t matter.
Where Detente comes in, is making sure too many actors don’t get involved in any given war or that it escalates too rapidly. Early on, in the war between Ukraine and Russia for instance, Zelensky wanted to launch rockets deep into Russia and hit Moscow, but was prevented because Putin was threatening a nuclear response if they did. Now things have changed, the Russians are now facing a bigger threat than Ukraine if they used The Bomb on them and Ukraine just isn’t worth the retaliation. Russia won’t lose in the sense of being defeated, and neither will Ukraine. Soon, the war will end with no victor but a lot of dead people, used-up inventories of outdated weapons and munitions, and the redistribution of wealth. Then the people can be taxed for the rebuilding. This is Detente.
The total crushing and annihilation of Hitler’s Nazi regime was not detente. That was true war as was the war with Japan. Detente isn’t crushing your enemy and having peace. Detente is maintaining a state of war just large enough to generate sales, profits and technological development without killing the population faster than they can be replaced.
Now, war is being used for profit instead of conquest. This is Detente. As the war industry grows worldwide, with nations that formerly were just watching the show now actively engaged in promoting war and selling the warring nations their weaponry, like Turkey with their drones and Israel with their advanced anti-missile defense systems, the need for more small wars grows to support the growing military-industrial complex of corporations which themselves have become deeply intertwined and more inter-dependent.
Detente today is controlled by the corporations, which now also control the world. You want to wage a war and you need fighter jets, trained pilots and lots of bombs? You have to convince the corporations to sell them to you and how many. They will control your war, if they allow it to happen, by controlling how much damage you can do to your enemy, and when.
This is Detente.