India, July 22 -- There was a time when brute force won the war if just an army was involved. The bigger the better. Soon tactics and the latest weaponry gave one a tactical edge, especially when it came to things like gunpowder and cannons. During colonial rule, it was the age of the navies. During World War I, armies regressed to trench warfare. After this the battle tank changed warfare completely. The Nazis with the Luftwaffe ruled the skies. After World War II we entered the nuclear age.

This new age was scary, but also somewhat stable. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction was coined, and it was felt that no matter what, no two nuclear armed countries would attack each other. Indeed, no nuclear bomb exploded over civilian pop...