Asia: A tinderbox armed to the teeth

A spectre in haunting Asia – of loaded guns and itching fingers, of armies brimming with weapons looking for a deliberate act of provocation, or just a little miscalculation to plunge into an all-out war. From Turkey in the far West, to the Arab countries in the middle to India and onto China, South Korea, Japan and a massively unpredictable North Korea, a high tensile curtain of weapons and sensors is going down as defence spending goes up to unheard of levels. Advertisement The Asian arms race is driven by a complex interplay of factors, including regional power dynamics with…