[lmm]

> Won't the cat and mouse game ultimately tilt to the side of defense?

Probably not. Most of the history of war is weapons getting stronger and stronger and defence getting harder and harder. E.g. in ancient times a shield or simple palisade could protect you, now even tanks and trenches are not safe. The days of being able to build a wall along a border and hold it against a peer adversary are long gone and not coming back.

[01HNNWZ0MV43FF]

I feel like this correlates with nations getting bigger over time and the square-cube law (or line-square law for national borders?) but I am not smart enough at military stuff to figure it out

[lmm]

I've read that it's kind of the converse - as military technology advances the size of a "minimum viable nation" increases. E.g. as gunpowder technology developed, anywhere that couldn't afford to field a gunpowder military got absorbed into somewhere that could.

[tim333]

On the other hand defensive alliances like NATO and the like pretty much work. A couple of centuries ago war was all over the place. These days most people never see it unless they deliberately go to a war zone.

The whole Ukraine war thing seems a bit anachronistic like something from the last century. I think it isn't coincidental that Putin spends a lot of time reading about past centuries (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/putin-compares...)

But times have moved on.