The angular momentum of conflict...

When satellite countries and dissident regimes suddenly enter into the fold of large alliances, trouble is on the way. It likely will not be physical conflict that begins.

Several blocks are forming, some based on trade, others on culture, still others purely on geographical proximity. One of the problems with blocks is the tendency for powder kegs to form. We have seen this repeatedly throughout history, and once this "angular momentum" of conflict starts spinning ever-faster, we can be assured that the ending will be more explosive than thought when examining the individual components in a steady state.

Or, like Kipling said (far more eloquently than the above)

Four things greater than all things are, --
Women and Horses and Power and War.

And so we see the jockeying that is guaranteed to happen during the fallout from economic bubbles, and must monitor the subsequent events very, very carefully.