Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
By General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts
William Collins £26
Plato reckoned that only the dead have seen the end of war.
More recently, a 19th-century jurist, Sir Henry Maine, reflected presciently, ‘War appears to be as old as mankind, but peace is a modern invention.’
Westerners brought up in the wake of the Second World War can be forgiven for thinking that peace is normal, subject to occasional unwelcome interruptions.
