In recent years, the clash between the interests of the G7 states and the rapidly expanding group of resource-dominant BRICS+ states has mainly been played out on the currency markets in the fight against the dominance of the petrodollar, with Russia and China setting the pace, by increasingly ridding their central bank balance sheets of US government bonds and dollar holdings, not least since the Americans decided to use the dollar as a sharp weapon in the geopolitical arena by expropriating Russian assets and using exclusion from the SWIFT payment mechanism as a means of exerting pressure.

Looking at the grand project of China's New Silk Road, we must note that the recent kinetic conflicts are located at key bottle necks and nodes of these new trade routes which obviously serve the purpose of increasing China's geopolitical influence in the world. The map allows us to predict where the next areas of regional conflict will be. Tension is rising as the world continues to heat up in the interplay between two major economic blocs whose ruling elites sense that neither side is willing to budge even a millimeter. We will see tensions at all levels of our economy, with the looming trade war over microchips likely to herald the next chapter.