[ellery]

I think it's bureaucratic physics: a bureaucracy at rest tends to stay at rest. Pasty loner = pawn off the problem on someone else (local law enforcement, etc.) Attack by foreign state = war = everyone has to burn the midnight oil for months or years.

[aristeides]

I think you're ignoring an important element in the bureaucracy's calculus: Attack by foreign state = war = everyone has to burn the midnight oil for months or years == jobs and power.