Starting in Afghanistan, it stretches through Iran and Yemen, across the Red Sea into Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan, onwards through Libya and into Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Somalia and South Sudan form additional branches of the same vast zone of instability. This is an area thousands of kilometres across, spanning much of the width of Africa and Southwest Asia. These are not, of course, all parts of one war. Their causes differ enormously: ethnic and tribal rivalries, state collapse, military coups, religious extremism, struggles over resources and trade routes, regional power politics and old territorial disputes. But increasingly, and with alarming speed, these conflicts are ceasing to be independent. 2/7