An exploration of warfare's devastating costs and complex drivers, from security dilemmas to economic motivations, examining why conflicts persist despite their enormous human toll.

Cree par des anciens de Columbia University a San Francisco
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Cree par des anciens de Columbia University a San Francisco

Lena: Hey everyone, welcome to today's episode! I'm Lena, joined as always by Miles, and we're tackling a topic that's as old as humanity itself - war. Miles, I was reading that combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties could hit 2 million by spring 2026. That's just staggering.
Miles: It really is, Lena. And what's striking about those numbers from the CSIS report is that Russia alone has suffered approximately 1.2 million casualties since February 2022, including around 325,000 deaths. That's more losses than any major power has experienced in any war since World War II.
Lena: Right, and it makes you wonder why wars happen at all, given the enormous human cost. I mean, we've been fighting each other throughout recorded history, but the scale seems to have changed dramatically.
Miles: Exactly. And what's fascinating is how war has evolved. The CSIS report points out that Russian forces in Ukraine are advancing at an incredibly slow rate - just 15 to 70 meters per day in their most prominent offensives. That's actually slower than many historical campaigns, including the notoriously bloody Battle of the Somme in World War I.
Lena: So despite all our technological advances, we're not necessarily getting more efficient at warfare?
Miles: In some ways, no. And it raises fundamental questions about why humans fight wars at all. Is it economic competition? Resource scarcity? Evolutionary psychology? Political miscalculation? There are so many theories, and they all seem to explain different aspects of this incredibly complex phenomenon. Let's dive into what actually drives humans to wage war, and why these conflicts persist despite their devastating costs.