Terms such as "the end of history" were popular for a while, so I think a big part of it was a huge sigh of relief after the Cold War. Even during the heyday of

Terms such as "the end of history" were popular for a while, so I think a big part of it was a huge sigh of relief after the Cold War. Even during the heyday of the Cold War, some thought defence was futile, some thought it would never be needed at all, so I can imagine that when everything looked alright for a while, cooler/more cynical/hawks didn't have as much sway and the balance shifted. We are way past it and back to where 50k conscripts should be trained a year again, but I guess everyone is used to lower taxes etc nowadays.