Q: You have mentioned that there are parallels between the maintenance of sex and that of a military in fighting shape. What are they and how are they geopolitically relevant?
Sex
In prokaryotes sex is casual. They exchange genetic material routinely, often across distant phylogenies, because DNA is not just a genetic molecule but also a structural molecule that holds together their biofilms. One of the defining events that marked the origin of eukaryotes was the institutionalization of sex. It is an expensive process because it means meiosis and sharing half your genetic material with another individual. Often the process of finding a partner is a failure resulting in a genetic endgame. Yet, sex is rather persistently maintained throughout eukaryotic evolution despite the ease with which one could reproduce by forming clones. In fact, many organisms forego their clonal reproduction for sex. Why is this so?
A clue comes from studies that show that sex is maintained due to biological conflicts with predators, parasites and competitors. A classic case is the New Zealand snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum which is infected by the trematode worm Microphallus that sterilizes it. While this snail can reproduce asexually and produce more offspring that way than via sexual reproduction it still retains sexual reproduction. Studies indicate that the asexual forms are more susceptible to Microphallus infection. But sex results in recombination that spawns resistant forms that can rise in numbers as the more efficiently reproducing but susceptible asexual ones are sterilized by the parasite. Thus, even if sexual reproduction is less efficient it is maintained because it provides an edge once biological conflicts are added to the equation.
Military
Similarly, the naive thinker might tell you that it makes no sense to invest in an expensive army when all that money can be directed towards peaceful janaksema. In youthful ignorance one may fall prey to that kind of thinking and say why should one maintain an army (The same was voiced by pujanīya cācājī JLN)? The simple answer is if one does not maintain it, one will be wiped out by populations that do so from within and without. Just as sex is coupled to the production of genetically recombinant progeny that is then put to test against the adverse edge of natural selection - i.e., living or dying in biological conflicts, likewise just having an army and armaments is not enough. They have to be put to test in actual conflict. If this does not happen regularly enough the army will inevitably acquire mutations that could make it unusable for its actual purpose. Indeed, the process of combat acts as a selective filter that kills bad fighters, tactics, and strategies and leaves the better stuff behind.
I suspect that is why the traditionally predatory nations of the Occident routinely engage in raptorial expeditions on smaller nations (Nicaragua, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.; France in North Africa) to keep their army tested. Armenia recently faced a “correction” via an actual military test. The Indian army is tested by routine anti-terrorism operations and the occasional skirmish or even war with the Cīna-s and the marūnmatta-s. The Rus were probably in that spot, where on one hand if they had waited longer their military would have accumulated sufficient “mutations” to be rather unusable. Thus, after graded tests in Georgia, followed by Syria, they probably felt tested enough for bigger fights. On the other, their enemies were making steady progress in encroaching on their zone of influence. There are other reasons, but this could be seen as one contributing to the current situation.