UNDERSTANDING THE NEW AGE OF WAR

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” *— William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming* OPENING NOTE William Butler Yeats’ chilling 1920 poem had a backdrop: World War I, the flu pandemic, the Russian Revolution and a sense of impending doom, an inflection point. The gyre is widening and turning again. As wars rage in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and West Asia, it is important to understand what’s happening and why. Questions abound. The answers are not easy to come by, given the unknowns. Here I intend to analyse how we have got here and…