Thread:Zillafire101/@comment-4960835-20160524105213/@comment-25309944-20160702193541

@Eco and Gorzill Alright, that makes a lot of sense. I should clarify that demilitarization is not the same thing as disarmament. Disarmament is the complete and total removal of the capability of a nation to wage war. Demilitarization in the sense that I intend is the scaling down of war economies -- societies which have been entirely subsumed by the war efforts of states, and the de-escalation of military preparations.

The objective would be to lengthen the time it would take for Xonexi and the Covenant of Mirus to be at war. It's likely that at the end of 2806 it would take barely a day for one or another of us to take a step across the border and attack. In other words, in a crisis situation, we are one escalation away from total war. This does not bode well for our chances. In a crisis situation, what matters most is time. Time to talk things through, time to think, time for creative solutions and accommodating escape hatches rather than narrow deadlines and brinkmanship. If rather than a day, it takes us a week or even a month and several steps of escalation to get our forces mobilized and to the front, it won't be as easy.

That's what I mean by demilitarization, which could extend to the militarization of economies, meaning the repeal of unsustainable policies such as conscription, rations, the requisition of resources, production, labor, expertise, etc, which make the existence of civil society independent from the state unlikely and which gradually reduce the standards of living of a population. This may not make sense in the Persan Descendants for cultural reasons, but Eco brings up a very valid point of comparison. After the war, if we truly want to remain at peace, we should turn our resources and productive capability primarily towards rebuilding our societies and civilian infrastructure, not towards preparing for the next war by participating in a buildup of offensive military capabilities. One is a good long-term use of resources, and we can keep the state of offensive military forces pointed at each other where they are or, if we're bold, we can scale them down. The other is an arms race where we'll just be jogging in place, wasting resources which could be used to more productive ends. Either way, we're equal in terms of relative power and strategic security, but only in the first is the chance of going to war reduced and the galaxy put on the path to recovery.

P.S. Xonexi and Mirus can hasten recovery through trade and mutual aid. P.P.S. Basically everything above is what Eco said except much, much longer.