Summary. The collapse of the old world order has accelerated into an avalanche. Hence, right here and right now, some new world is taking shape. Transitional periods are always accompanied by a certain kind of turbulence, unrest and upheaval. Changes in our contemporary world are in many respects comparable to the major transitions of human history. Although the origins of this transformation are rooted in new technologies, above all digital ones, in communications, biology, finance, medicine and many other fields, yet it reminds one of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides who, in his famous book “History of the Peloponnesian War,” wrote: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Thucydides not only recorded the events of the Great War between Athens and Sparta but has also illuminated the future, as he himself writes that he composed it “not as an essay to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.” In the contemporary world, change Athens with China and Sparta with the United States, and the whole picture becomes clear.
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The writer is an Assistant Editor of JWT.
