The world is seeing the beginning of the Second Cold War.

It began on the day in January 2017 when Donald Trump took up residence in the White House and began his assault on the world economic system his country had taken the lead to create after helping the allied forces won their two wars: one in Europe against Germany and Italy and the other against Japan in East Asia. While the United States was instrumental in winning these two hot wars, it chose not to be in the lead creating the economic and political systems that were to guide the world in managing world affairs.

A new set of institutions were created in which the United States shared power with other nations, with those participating following agreed rules of international law. The new institutions included the United Nations which included all the free nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The IBRD added more facilities and became what is now generally referred to as the World Bank Group (WBG). What was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR, chose not to join the new institutions excepting the United Nations. Moscow, the USSR's capital, wanted to expand its influence beyond its borders even if it meant using force.

This Moscow ambition to expand was not acceptable to Washington and the capitals of Western Europe. They created more institutional devices to contain the USSR within its recognised borders. The most important of these was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in which the participating nations agreed........

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