If, a decade ago, someone had described the present state of world power, politics and economics, I would have concluded that the picture painted was one of a dystopian fantasy.

For example, I am a passionate pro-European, believing that the stability and prosperity of Europe was hard-won by those who came through World War II, and vowed that the mistakes of the post World War I era would never be made again. They were people who saw that European countries, whilst speaking different languages, had far more in common than that which divided them.

The mistakes after WWI were seen, mainly, to be economic. Germany was humiliated and economically punished, leading to massive poverty for a nation of people, who, on an individual level, had little to do with the triggering of the war or its consequences.

After WW2, the Marshall Plan, driven by the USA, was designed to allow…