Built to Be Destroyed: Dr. Jignesh Jani on War’s Wasteful Cycle

Humanitarian thinker Dr. Jignesh Jani describes modern warfare as a cycle in which valuable resources are first used to create destruction and then used again to repair what has been destroyed, a pattern behind his calls for ceasefires in the Iran-Israel-US tensions and the Russia-Ukraine war.

According to Dr. Jani, fuel that could support transport and agriculture is burned in military operations, while metals and minerals that could be used for renewable energy, infrastructure, and technology are instead converted into weapons, only for reconstruction to later demand fresh supplies of the same materials.

Agricultural land is damaged, forests are burned, and water systems are contaminated during conflict, and rebuilding destroyed cities afterward requires enormous quantities of cement, steel, fuel, and energy, adding further pressure on resources already spent once.

Dr. Jani argues this is not progress but repetition, with the same categories of resources drawn on twice for the same stretch of land: once to destroy it, and again to restore it to where it started.

He has called for immediate diplomatic attention to the tensions involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, along with a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, arguing that breaking this destroy-and-rebuild cycle starts with ending active fighting.

His broader point is that a ceasefire redirects resources out of this loop entirely, allowing them to go toward new development rather than restoring what conflict has already destroyed.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Jignesh Jani