ABSTRACT
In this scene from the sixth book of the Harry Potter series (Rowling 2005),1 the current and former Ministers of Magic have come to warn the Muggle Prime Minister that Lord Voldemort has returned and the wizarding community is once again at war. The Muggle leader, awed by the wizards’ fantastical powers to conjure items from thin air and travel through the fireplace, momentarily forgets a tragic truth about the ability of humans to wage war on one another. No offensive or defensive strategy can ever guarantee a permanent advantage for the simple reason there is no shortage of new and effective ways in which we can threaten, or be threatened, by one another. Nor is there a foolproof way to keep any technological advantage from eventually making its way into the hands of the enemy. History is littered with the battles waged and lost by the conventionally superior force when it is confronted with new weapons, new tactics, or sufficient resolve on the part of the enemy to wear it down.
