China

The first several decades of the twenty-first century have constituted themselves as a time of great dread. It is an age that appeared to mark both the beginning of a century and the end of an age; an end augured by assaults on the physical and financial manifestations of the power of a worldview that had been dominant since 1945. The physical assault on the Twin Towers in New York marked a challenge to the power of the established order to maintain it. The intangible assault followed the near collapse of the power of the established order to protect and project its wealth.