I'm sorry, but NO! International conflicts don't drive innovation, except in certain fields, and they leave so much death and destruction (not to mention national bankruptcy and defence-company foreclosures from demobilisation), that any advantages are far outweighed. Much better in international competition.
On the social front things are no better, not for the Armenians under the Ottomans the, Ukrainians during the Holodomor, the Jews during the Holocaust, The Chinese during the Great Leap Forward, the Cambodians during the Khmer Regime and dozens of others. At best, after the war you might see some social improvement for the lower classes, if the country isn't bankrupt, hasn't lost, and is actually that way inclined. Of course you could mention continued colonialism, but I wonder, how are most people in Zimbabwe, Somalia, Bangadesh, etc doing today than they were under their respective masters? Was the Vietnam war a good thing for the Vietnamese?
So no, skipping the war wouldn't hold things back, not technologically and not socially, or at least I can't imagine ATL colonialism being much worse than the premature decolonisation they ended up with.