Cold War 2.0: The empire’s last temper tantrum

The great lie of our time is that World War III is a looming possibility. Politicians whisper it with grave brows, think-tankers roll it out on PowerPoint slides, and journalists rehearse their “serious voice” to warn we teeter on the brink. But let’s drop the theatre. The war is not looming. It’s already here. It just doesn’t look like the history books promised. There’s no Archduke Ferdinand, no Pearl Harbor, no mushroom cloud. Instead, it is a rolling series of wars, upheavals, and genocides: Gaza, Ukraine, the South China Sea, the Sahel. A world war by subscription plan, billed monthly in blood. Call it Cold War 2.0 if you like. It’s catchy, conjuring images of icy standoffs and tense chess […]