This is the interim period between wars that were fought with humans and those that will be fought with machines. As we straddle the yesterday and tomorrow, the world is in the middle of a bloodless war between the old-world hegemon that is the US, and the contender for the crown that is China. As the US plays Russian roulette with China in an all-in trade war, the rest of the world waits for the winner to be announced so that it can realign its national interest, according to the new world order.

The incumbent power is bloated with debt and battered by a sharply torn population, a chunk of which does not have faith in the current leadership. America has advantages of its economic might, its military, its control of the global trade pipelines. But it also has one arm tied behind its back due to the friction of checks and balances that democracy imposes on a country. This is not an opinion on democracy but an observation on the costs of democracy when in need of nimble-footed manoeuvres. China, as an authoritarian regime with thin institutional resistance to government actions and harsh controls on free speech and anti-government protests, is free to act and pivot very fast in response to events.

In fact,........

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