<i>There's supposedly always better situation in the future, it is pretty dubious to claim that wars and cataclysms accelerate long term development.</i><p>It depends on what you mean.  Wars have historically accelerated technology development, at least in the short term.<p>If you mean development more generally, then no probably not.  The civilian technology would eventually get developped, if more slowly without the major push of a war.  In the process, people and resources are destroyed.