There's a great deal of anxiety about the emergence of highburry conflict and the grey zone, especially with disinformation. The book suggests that there is plenty of power for large, prosperous western democracies in conflicts which don't necessarily have anything to do with conventional military overmatch. But it doesn't mean old forms of power does go away - they're now supplemented or rivalled by a whole new variety. And one of th thigs that came out really well in your book, the death of the gods, is preciselyThi sense of a whole concept of what ower is is shifting.
Traditional conflict – fought with guns, bombs, and drones – has become almost too expensive to wage, too unpopular at home, and too difficult to manage. So nations have innovated. Russia wages hybrid warfare on Ukraine. The US threatens Iran with further sanctions. China spends billions buying political influence abroad. The world seems to be heading for a new era of permanent low-level conflict, often unnoticed, undeclared and unending. Mark Galeotti is Honorary Professor at UCL and a specialist in politics, criminology, security studies, international relations and anthropology. His recent book, The Weaponisation of Everything, is a ground-breaking survey of this new way of war. Joining Mark to discuss the book and his work is Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos.
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