ISMAIL LAGARDIEN: War in the South China Sea? All bets are on, or should that be off?
It is foolish to make predictions, but pride could spark a clash between the US and China
I have been a keen, active and engaged observer of global political economic matters for close to 30 years, as a journalist, academic and international public policymaker. If I have learned anything, it would be that prediction is a foolish activity.
Then, also foolishly, at the start of last year I stepped into it … On a hunch, and even citing John Maynard Keynes, I “suggested” something was going to happen in March 2020. Based on people I spoke to (in Brussels, Singapore and London), on papers I had perused and a casual reading of the tension between China and the US, I felt that the two countries, already in a trade war, would up the ante in what one of my mentors described as “the improbable war”. More on this later...
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