The future of war: A special report

The world this week

The Economist reads

A group of young women working on a script in Greenwich Village, New York City, June 1954.

How to write

What to read to become a better writer

The Economist explains

Leaders

Soldiers on the Western Front, with drones above them

The future of war

A new era of high-tech war has begun

Technology has transformed the battlefield. Democracies must respond accordingly

East Asia’s lopsided revolution

The new Asian family

East Asian governments must try to manage a momentous social change they cannot prevent

An enduring error

“Greedflation” is a nonsense idea

Inflation is the result of economic policy mistakes and war, not corporate avarice

Blackburn Meadows Waste Water Treatment Works in Sheffield

Britain’s water mess

The real problem with Britain’s water companies

Blame financial blunders and timid regulation, not privatisation

People walk on the campus of the University of North Carolina

Supreme sort

Why affirmative action in American universities had to go

And why what comes after could be better

Nodules containing nickel, cobalt and manganese rest on top of core samples taken from the deep ocean floor

Deep-sea mining

The world needs more battery metals. Time to mine the seabed

Getting nickel from the deep causes much less damage than getting it on land

Letters

On Denmark’s Social Democrats, vaping taxes, the Indian diaspora, Daniel Ellsberg, Sierra Leone, the Multiverse, Douglas Adams

Letters to the editor

Briefing

Border-defence police officers on patrol in Heilongjiang province, north-east China

Neighbourhood botch

Why China should be friendlier to its neighbours

If it wants to challenge America’s global leadership, it will need their backing

International

Economic & financial indicators

Obituary

Donald Triplett as a child

Through the dark clouds shining

Donald Triplett was autism’s “Case 1”