In the summer of 1945, as the world war drew to a close in Berlin, Germany resembled a scramble to the finish line: Americans and their allies swept in from the western flanks while Soviet tanks rolled into the eastern half of the country. Ironically, the two victorious forces would split the spoils into ideological halves. Europe, the cause, battleground and outcome of the war – would epitomise a new world order dominated by the two superpowers.
Like WWII, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 is this century’s gamechanger. When the fog eventually lifts and the haze clears, the world will find itself on a playground whose time has finally come: Asia. Aside from the Middle East, it’s the Eastern, South and Southeast parts of Asia that have inherited a new ‘Cold War’. This piece focuses on this part of Asia.
Read about the changing dynamics here.
