Why the present may resemble the late 1920s

Are current tensions a repeat of the late 1930s, with conflict likely in the Pacific?

The closer analogy may be the late 1920s: unease and selective rearmament are visible, while the full force expansion of the late 1930s has not yet arrived.

Current Pacific tensions are not treated as an immediate replay of the late 1930s. The closer analogy is the late 1920s, after a long period in which governments expected disarmament and limited force requirements. Western states are beginning to buy sophisticated replacement equipment without yet expanding total force numbers. That combination suggests selective rearmament and rising unease before the mature mobilization associated with the eve of World War II. If war began anyway, states would have to build navies rapidly because no current force is configured for another trans-Pacific war.