The argument links slow destroyer evolution to post-Cold War campaigns against opponents that could not contest Western fleets as peers. Distance and asymmetry reduced political pressure to prepare for a state able to combine many high-end threats. Russia's course after the war in Ukraine is treated as uncertain, although several plausible outcomes would still leave a large, heavily armed state. Naval planning therefore has to account for national interests and capabilities without reducing every rivalry to a simple moral label.
Notable Point · 1:18:38-1:21:01
Asymmetric-war habits meet renewed peer threats
Three decades of distant asymmetric war left governments with weaker incentives to develop fleet screens for states that can combine many high-end threats close to home.