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Wars will more and more be fought by remote controlled or autonomous drones. People are more ready to become soldiers if they can stay in a safe country, press

by est31 7y ago

Wars will more and more be fought by remote controlled or autonomous drones. People are more ready to become soldiers if they can stay in a safe country, press some buttons, and their life won't be at stake. Wars will be less unpopular in the countries that deploy those drones. Even traditional forms of combat are increasingly supported by technology. ASML is a key component here: they build the machines needed to build the chip components of drones. In future wars, having microchip fabs will be as important as having steel mills was in WW2. So ASML has huge strategic importance.

deogeo 7y ago
You don't need to fight traditional wars if you can dominate economically. Which seems to be what China has been doing so far.
- est31 7y ago
  Economic sanctions are a powerful instrument but they are only as powerful as much as the people involved care about their economy. ISIS doesn't care about economics, they care about beheading non-muslims and creating a medieval society. Taliban could have gotten rich from accepting mining companies into their country but instead they chose to fly attacks on the USA and ruin their reputation. North Korea's economy is a shadow of the south Korean one yet they won't give in and stop their nuclear program in exchange for economic help. Managing these people requires application of immediate force, aka military. Regarding China, it is building a monopoly in the hardware sector. It's already impossible to avoid China if you want to build a smartphone. The more this trend continues, the more China will exert influence with its power over that sector. For a military conflict with China, which isn't unlikely in the future, this means that anyone else would be at a disadvantage.
- elfexec 7y ago
  History says otherwise. China and India dominated europe economically. That was one of the reasons for the european conquest of india and china. China, Rus, Persia, Arabia, etc dominated the mongols economically. The mongols conquered them all. The roman empire economically dominated the germanic north. The barbarians sacked and eventually conquered rome. It's nice to have an economic edge, but it's also important to maintain a military edge.

by est31 7y ago

deogeo 7y ago

You don't need to fight traditional wars if you can dominate economically. Which seems to be what China has been doing so far.

est31 7y ago
Economic sanctions are a powerful instrument but they are only as powerful as much as the people involved care about their economy. ISIS doesn't care about economics, they care about beheading non-muslims and creating a medieval society. Taliban could have gotten rich from accepting mining companies into their country but instead they chose to fly attacks on the USA and ruin their reputation. North Korea's economy is a shadow of the south Korean one yet they won't give in and stop their nuclear program in exchange for economic help. Managing these people requires application of immediate force, aka military. Regarding China, it is building a monopoly in the hardware sector. It's already impossible to avoid China if you want to build a smartphone. The more this trend continues, the more China will exert influence with its power over that sector. For a military conflict with China, which isn't unlikely in the future, this means that anyone else would be at a disadvantage.
elfexec 7y ago
History says otherwise. China and India dominated europe economically. That was one of the reasons for the european conquest of india and china. China, Rus, Persia, Arabia, etc dominated the mongols economically. The mongols conquered them all. The roman empire economically dominated the germanic north. The barbarians sacked and eventually conquered rome. It's nice to have an economic edge, but it's also important to maintain a military edge.