"Nobody outside of despots and tyrants and dictators bent on world domination ever wants to go to war. And yet entire nations of people are moved to do so because, to put it simply, there is no other choice... They can try to put it off. They can institute political and economic policies that ignore the underlying realities and watch as conditions deteriorate to the breaking point. They can try futilely to stem the tide of history. But they can only kick the can so far down the road. Ultimately, people go to war." So writes Christopher Petitt in this groundbreaking work. Global economic malaise, record financial inequality, chaos in the Middle East (including the rise of ISIS), Russian expansion, the Eurozone crisis, the growth of China's military, the loss of American influence - the world is beginning to see turmoil that may rival the global turmoil of the 1930s on the eve of the Second World War. Are there instructive parallels? The power structures of the world are changing, and if history is a guide, the changing will not come quietly. In The Crucible of Global War - And the Sequence that is Leading Back to It, Petitt - history devotee, market economist, avid student of Middle East affairs - lays out in chilling detail the connections between today's geopolitical disorder and the critical moments throughout history that have preceded times of global war. Is it humankind's destiny to experience global war again? Is war inevitable? The Crucible of Global War is a page-turning exposition of history, politics, economics, current events, and philosophy - a must-read for anyone interested in gaining insight into the nature of history and the inexorable unfolding of the perilous times ahead.