Shinzo Abe

The shock of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination should not blind us to the fact that he was an ultranationalist and militarist politician, who sought to whitewash imperial Japan’s war crimes, writes Rupen Savoulian.

Will a verbal war between a senile dotard and a little rocket man result in an actual war? Probably not, but at the moment, the risk is unprecedented.

The reason it remains unlikely is simply because the consequences of any actions are so catastrophic. Right now, this is the only deterrent to war.