I'm not sure I understand the welfare-warfare model. It seems like it requires a bunch of preconditions: * The cycle of debt needs to be bootstrapped. You ne

I'm not sure I understand the welfare-warfare model. It seems like it requires a bunch of preconditions: * The cycle of debt needs to be bootstrapped. You need some initial borrowing well beyond current (expected) repayment capacity. This implies both some overspending and lack of due diligence by lenders willing to extend the rope. * The debt is denominated in a currency the borrower doesn't control. If you're American borrowing dollars, or Russia borrowing roubles, you can always deflate the currency to moot the debt. * The state has no legal leverage against lenders. A continuation of the tactics above-- I could imagine a desperate nation simply refusing to redeem its bonds, or even prosecuting people attempting to claim then. There may be incentives and default-approaches that encourage the growth of empire to feed a debt addiction, but it's far from the only way. In the worst case, you end up with a default and limited to dealing with lenders who are legally required to deal with you (i.e. requiring pension plans or state-owned enterprises to sponge up government bonds) until someone else is willing to take a punt.