The fourth is the growing restrictions
in the field of international travel on such
activities as carrying laptops onto planes
and obtaining entry visas.
This is a cloudy flag with extreme
scenarios flowing out of it, such as nuclear
or dirty-bomb terrorism and a possible
showdown between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
There are no signs that this flag will come
down any time soon, although in its present
form it doesn’t represent an existential
threat to the West.
The red flag
immigration policies, which has probably
divided America more than any other
issue since slavery triggered the American
Civil War.
The third is intelligence-gathering and the
game of war generally, where the West has
to fight a highly dispersed enemy unified
only by ideology, but with the ability to
create havoc through lone-wolf attacks on
civilian targets.
This cloudy flag first went up with the
annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014,
after which Russia was thrown out of the G8
and had heavy economic sanctions imposed
on it. Yet Russia supplies one quarter of
Europe’s energy. Presidents Vladimir Putin
and Donald Trump are uneasy colleagues
whose relationship could change overnight
if there’s any military incident in Syria or
elsewhere involving Russian and American
military forces.
Meanwhile, China overtook America
to become the world’s largest economy
in terms of purchasing power parity. The
Asian giant is building a sophisticated
defence system and international trading
network to protect its number one
position, having regained it after 300
years in the shadows.
North Korea, the third component of
this flag, is a wild card with the potential
to start a se cond Korean War, given the
unpredictability of its relationship with
America and the impulsive nature of
both countries’ leaders. No amount of
sanctions will make it drop its missile
and nuclear programme. However, in the
event of war, South Korea will be the
country to suffer most and China will be
severely disrupted.