WHAT THE FCUK IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD?
Well, here's a 1/13 thread about why #britain thinks it's powerful. We don't know if we're top-table or in the relegation zone #SmartPower.
A leader talks of his country's great past and its magic future. You believe him. Are you wise? 1/

You want your country to top every league table it can.
But maybe he's a charlatan who will take his country down, you’re sure of it.
The leader says he wants his country to be the world-beating number one nation.
Great, but one problem. The world we grew up in is over 2/

Imagine living at the same time after #Napoleon, the Kaiser, #Hitler, the fall of the #BerlinWall when the world order was overturned and a new way of life begun.

Well, that's now.

Every thirty years or so a battle is fought for the future... 3/

Once every 100 years everything changes. We had the Spanish century, the French century, the British century, the American century, now we face the Chinese century.

All were epic struggles and all needed a once-in-a-century bloodbath to separate the winners from the losers..4/

Every century a crisis arises not only to control the state but to change it and the way the world is run.
We're at the beginning of a new era in history.
A new battle for power is underway.
But what are the rules of the game, and how smart the leaders who play it? 5/