3 ms·

You seem to have missed the "investment into peace research and conflict prevention" part of my post. Ironically, that's the part that you quoted.

SubiculumCode 4y ago
oh so another military program. only half kidding
fvdessen 4y ago
Thousands of years of peace research have shown that some conflicts can only be prevented by the peaceful side being better prepared for war.
- chihuahua 4y ago
  I'm sure if Ukraine had spent some money on "peace research" in 2013-2021, this whole mess could have been prevented. /s
- yrro 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum
TulliusCicero 4y ago
Your criticism is itself ironic, since you missed the point of my own comment. The "we" in your original statement is doing a lot of work.
aliswe 4y ago
> investment into peace research and conflict prevention What would this even mean?
- brutusborn 4y ago
  Investment into things like research of past conflicts to determine optimal policies. E.g. if most conflicts are found to occur from trade issues, you could possibly reduce risk by lobbying the WTO to amend its policies. You can see what the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs spends their budget on here: https://dppa.un.org/en/funding-documents https://dppa.un.org/en/funding-documents
- wildmanx 4y ago
  If you find out why conflicts and wars have broken out in the past, that could enable you to devise strategies to avoid them in the future. Just like post-mortems in other areas. A plane crashed? Investigators go find out why, amend protocols and technical safeguards so that root cause won't bring down another plane in the future. Too many bad side effects of some drug? Investigation into why and adjustment of recommendations to doctors. You had a prod network meltdown? The responsible team does an ideally blame-free investigation to find the root cause and re-structures their setup to prevent it next time. Fight with your wife? Find out what caused it and then improve communication or expectations or whatever contributed to it. A war broke out? THOSE GUYS ARE EVIL AND WE NEED MORE SPENDING ON WEAPONS!!!1 Since WW2, all those former world-power countries in western Europe have lived in peace with one another, not because they built weapons for mutually assured destruction, but because they built economic interdependence and mutual understanding. That's a start and proper research into this could take things much further.
  - TulliusCicero 4y ago
    > Since WW2, all those former world-power countries in western Europe have lived in peace with one another, not because they built weapons for mutually assured destruction, but because they built economic interdependence and mutual understanding. Yes, and people thought this would work with Russia too, hence Nordstream and other trade. Turns out, only more military power would've stopped Putin from invading. Economic interdependence can certainly be a good thing, but it's not all-powerful. Sometimes the answer really is having enough military power to deter your enemies. Democracies generally don't invade other democracies, but not every place is a democracy.

SubiculumCode 4y ago

oh so another military program. only half kidding

fvdessen 4y ago

Thousands of years of peace research have shown that some conflicts can only be prevented by the peaceful side being better prepared for war.

chihuahua 4y ago
I'm sure if Ukraine had spent some money on "peace research" in 2013-2021, this whole mess could have been prevented. /s
yrro 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum

TulliusCicero 4y ago

Your criticism is itself ironic, since you missed the point of my own comment. The "we" in your original statement is doing a lot of work.

aliswe 4y ago

> investment into peace research and conflict prevention What would this even mean?

brutusborn 4y ago
Investment into things like research of past conflicts to determine optimal policies. E.g. if most conflicts are found to occur from trade issues, you could possibly reduce risk by lobbying the WTO to amend its policies. You can see what the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs spends their budget on here: https://dppa.un.org/en/funding-documents https://dppa.un.org/en/funding-documents
wildmanx 4y ago
If you find out why conflicts and wars have broken out in the past, that could enable you to devise strategies to avoid them in the future. Just like post-mortems in other areas. A plane crashed? Investigators go find out why, amend protocols and technical safeguards so that root cause won't bring down another plane in the future. Too many bad side effects of some drug? Investigation into why and adjustment of recommendations to doctors. You had a prod network meltdown? The responsible team does an ideally blame-free investigation to find the root cause and re-structures their setup to prevent it next time. Fight with your wife? Find out what caused it and then improve communication or expectations or whatever contributed to it. A war broke out? THOSE GUYS ARE EVIL AND WE NEED MORE SPENDING ON WEAPONS!!!1 Since WW2, all those former world-power countries in western Europe have lived in peace with one another, not because they built weapons for mutually assured destruction, but because they built economic interdependence and mutual understanding. That's a start and proper research into this could take things much further.
- TulliusCicero 4y ago
  > Since WW2, all those former world-power countries in western Europe have lived in peace with one another, not because they built weapons for mutually assured destruction, but because they built economic interdependence and mutual understanding. Yes, and people thought this would work with Russia too, hence Nordstream and other trade. Turns out, only more military power would've stopped Putin from invading. Economic interdependence can certainly be a good thing, but it's not all-powerful. Sometimes the answer really is having enough military power to deter your enemies. Democracies generally don't invade other democracies, but not every place is a democracy.