It is a troubled world that we live in today and there are many reasons for this. Draw a straight line from Pakistan to Turkey, swing down to the Gaza Strip and from there to Yemen, and we have an area embroiled in all sorts of conflicts, some recent and some that have lasted for decades. Another journey from Sinai to the Maghreb, thence to Nigeria and Central Africa and ending in Somalia, covers another arc of what is, at times, extremely brutal conflict.

Three recent maps would also explain the depth, scale and complex nature of the conflict. One, a map of Baghdad depicting, in small red dots, car bomb explosions in the city since its so called liberation in 2003. The entire map is full of these red dots and it is impossible to read the name of the streets or localities. The second map is of Syria with its conflict zones and the areas held by various factions ripping the country apart. It is more like a scrambled egg that has gone wrong and it is impossible to unscramble this.