> But the past three decades, wars between states have become blissfully rare, as states rarely invade their neighbors and seek to conquer their territory.

This has had far more to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union. It hand-waives away the issue of Ukraine without even mentioning Israel, and ignores lots of regional conflicts (e.g. Yemen, the Central African Republic), Afghanistan, and ISIL.

The insistence that China doesn't count as a viable alternative because they have shopping malls and social media now also strikes me as misinformed.