Governments must invest in infrastructure whose full benefits lie decades ahead, and strong states depend on people willing and able to think beyond the next political cycle. The world wars removed many such people through death and left many survivors physically or psychologically wounded. France and Verdun show why counting battlefield fatalities alone understates the economic and civic damage to a nation. Dr. Clarke presents the effect as lasting national trauma rather than claiming that France ceased to function. Force planning rests on these human foundations of state capacity.
Notable Point · 3:15:17-3:17:42
How the world wars damaged national capacity beyond the dead
Long-term state capacity depends on the physical and psychological wounds carried home from the world wars as well as the number killed.