Industrialized weaponry and fixed borders make territorial conquest obsolete

Evidence

Clausewitz’s dictum becomes substantially obsolete with the spread of industrialised weaponry; and where the borders between nations have mostly been fixed and nation-states cover virtually the whole of earth’s surface, territorial aggrandisement loses the meaning it once had. Finally, growing interdependence on a global level increases the range of situations in which similar interests are shared by all states. To envisage a world without war is clearly Utopian, but is by no means wholly lacking in realism. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 392

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to earlier chapters on the industrialization of war as a defining feature of modernity; also echoes the reader’s interest in system-level transformations overriding individual agency. — connects to: Total war makes warfare useless as a political instrument — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 156; Nuclear weapons make war as an instrument of policy obsolete — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 186; Agrarian states never achieved the internal pacification of modern states — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 256 (+5 more)

Related

• Nuclear weapons make war as an instrument of policy obsolete (similarity 0.89)
• Total war makes warfare useless as a political instrument (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• Dominant weapons become obsolete when their intended fights never occur #expands (0.55) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 456
• A single technological leap can render an entire opposing arsenal obsolete #expands (0.45) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 562