For general context, the opinion piece was published April 2014. Bezos owned The WaPo at the time and had since 2013. Author is Stanford historian and archaeologist Ian Morris.
In the long run, wars make us safer and richer

War may be the worst way imanigible to create peaceful societies but it is pretty much the only way.

The Washington Post
I will do one better and provide a link to an archived copy of the article so you all can read it for yourselves!