I was browsing gawker media blogs when I saw this post on the side: http://phasezero.gawker.com/the-forever-war-is-always-already-here-introducing-pha-1695040087/+marchman This post explained that "Phase Zero" means peace, but not really - they called it pre-war. The quote that made me ask this question was this one: "The goal of Phase Zero is a populace convinced that armed-and-ready is the only acceptable option. So what used to be called "peacetime" is now just another stage in a never-ending cycle of war." The author says "what used to be peacetime", but never says when or where "used to be" was. Have almost all nations for all history been armed-and-ready, or did/do they truly disassemble their military during times of peace, and reassemble it during times of war? Is this unique to modern America, as the author implies? Thank you!
Repost, since this didn't get any attention the first time (I posted it at like 3am)
A few nations doesn't feel the need to maintain an army. There is at least two exemples in the Americas with Haïti and Costa Rica. However I'm unsure you could call those in peace time as it maintains defense contracts with other states for protection.
Member states of a federation can be considered truly at peace as states they have contacts with are friendly, unmenacing and those don't maintain defense. However the "prewar" condition is simply delegated to the federal level that doesn't know a true peace. Taken on isolation without considering the federal level, member states of a federation are in a real peace.