How post world-war lessons got lost in the swamp

After the Second World War, a brutal realism took root: hard-nosed calculations about how to thwart the many countries that have designs on their neighbours, and the worse threat of nuclear war.

Border changes by negotiation and compromise are permissible, but conquest is over. Past grievances have to stay in the past, or else we will end up fighting nuclear wars, writes Gwynne Dyer.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

April 8, 2026

LONDON, U.K.—‘When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original goal was to drain the swamp.’ (Not very old folk saying)

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