Fear brings the tendency for a preemptive attack. “Do to others before they do to you,” so our fears say. It seems like wisdom. We call it “prevention”. And we convince many people to support us. Then we beat the opponent to the punch.
Soon after our first-strike, our enemy hits back. “See! See!” we say. “He wanted to hit us! The world is full of dangerous people! Cut them off at the pass!” So begins military buildup, escalation, alliances, espionage, strategy, planning, analysis…
But has any quantitative analysis ruled out that preemptive solutions to conflict could be self-fulfilling placebos?