Low-cost warfare makes states more likely to bomb casually.

Evidence

To which Benjamin Friedman replies, “Actually, yes. The argument is that we make more careful judgments about lethal acts when we anticipate more costs to our troops. Free wars, … are more likely to be dumb wars. That doesn’t mean that we should put troops in harm’s way just to have more skin in the game and improve debate. But we should worry about how the absence of discernible consequences at home makes us more likely to casually bomb people. It is not pop sociology but orthodox price theory that tells us that lowering costs increases demand.” — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 594

Categorization

• XREF: Directly engages the reader’s stated interest in imperial impunity grounded in twisted logic. — connects to: Cheapening nuclear weapons is eroding the precondition for deterrence; Externalizing the human cost of war makes wars more frequent and bloodier. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 583; Overseas bases ease the waging of foreign wars and make war likelier (+1 more)

Related

• Externalizing the human cost of war makes wars more frequent and bloodier. (similarity 0.88)
• Overseas bases make war more likely by lowering its cost (similarity 0.82)
• Externalizing war risks makes violence the default policy option (similarity 0.80)
• Cheapening nuclear weapons is eroding the precondition for deterrence (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Overseas bases ease the waging of foreign wars and make war likelier #expands (0.70)
• Cheap asymmetric weapons can topple vastly more expensive military investments. #complicates (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 441