IN THE past 25 years war has claimed too many lives. Yet even as civil and devout strife bear raged in Syria,central Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq, and a devastating clash between the worlds noteworthy powers has remained nearly unimaginable.
No longer. Last week the Pentagon issued a new national defence strategy that build China and Russia above jihadism as the main threat to America. This week the chief of Britain’s general staff warned of a Russian attack. Even now America and North Korea are perilously close to a conflict that risks dragging in China or escalating into nuclear catastrophe.
As our special report this week on the future of war argues,powerful, long-term shifts in geopolitics and the proliferation of new technologies are eroding the extraordinary military dominance that America and its allies bear enjoyed. Conflict on a scale and intensity not seen since the second world war is once again plausible. The world is not prepared.
The pity of...
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Source: economist.com