“War is the continuation of politics by other means” – Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege

Governments today like to present economic growth as the only way to improve the wellbeing of their citizens. Some of them might even believe this themselves. In truth, raw GDP growth is almost never the best way to increase a country's standards of living—especially not for mature economies.

In the great game of geopolitics though, economic growth is essentially an arms race between the major power blocs. Having learned their lessons from both World Wars, strategists now see a large civilian economy as a reserve force that can be enlisted into a war effort at will.

Before the Second World War, the Allied powers had been fixated on their civilian economies, trying to drag them out of the depths of the Great Depression. Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan on the other hand focused their efforts on military buildup. Unsurprisingly, the Axis powers did hold an advantage when hostilities began. But it didn't take long for the Allies to convert their larger economies into the war machine that decisively defeated their enemies.

During the Cold War, pacifists rightly flagged the nuclear arms race as the biggest threat to mankind. That risk hasn't disappeared, but it has been superceded by the more insidious threat of the economic arms race. All the signs are that continued growth will lead to environmental collapse. The only way to stop this is by making peace.