Even as shooting wars are raging in Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen, and may yet be sparked over Taiwan, there is much talk about the ways in which modern states face more subtle threats, from disinformation, subversion, economic pressure and espionage. This is the world of ‘hybrid war’, of grey zone warfare.’The fact of the matter is that traditional conflict—fought with guns, bombs, and drones—is often becoming almost too expensive to wage, too unpopular at home, and too difficult to manage. Just ask Vladimir Putin, now two years and hundreds of thousands of casualties into a ‘special military operation’ that was meant to take no more than days or weeks and involve near enough no fighting. It is slowly bankrupting Russia, while Ukraine can only survive thanks to more than $3 billion in military and financial aid from the West every month.Wars between states are, mercifully, becoming less common. However, conflict, rivalries between states over resources, trade access, technology and even ideologies are not disappearing—instead, they are taking new forms. In an age when the United States can and does threaten Europe with sanctions, when China spends billions buying influence abroad, and when Russia uses propaganda to try and rip democracies apart, these are the new kinds of wars.The implication is that the world is heading for a new era of permanent low-level conflict, often unnoticed, undeclared, and unending. Conflicts can take place not just between avowed enemies, but also notional allies, and which are fought through international law, cultural assimilation and influence as much as the traditional means of assassination, espionage and subversion.