There is good reason to fear it could be the Second Korean War, with craziness in North Korea and chaos in the South. Or it could be yet another quagmire in the Middle East. Trump's most excitable critics keep warning that World War III will happen on his watch. But I am more worried about Cyber War I - especially as it has already begun.

As Trump’s administration digs itself into ever deeper holes over his campaign’s contacts with the Russians, he needs to remember the lessons of Watergate. Number one: Declaring war on the press is a high-risk strategy because they have the biggest possible incentive to get you. Number two: It’s the cover-up that kills you.

 Half a century after the civilians stumbled into the quagmire of Vietnam, it’s time give American militarism the salute it deserves.

Globalization is in crisis. Populism is on the march. Authoritarian states are ascendant. How on earth do we make sense of all this?

Unfortunately for Donald Trump, “I Fought the Law” was last week’s theme tune. On Thursday, the federal Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit ruled against his administration’s executive order banning refugees, immigrants, and visitors from seven mostly Muslim countries. As a result, the executive order is a dead letter, pending further litigation or a complete rewrite by Team Trump.

The most disorientating thing is that, just as you are all set to loathe something the president has done, he turns around and does something you rather like. The Trump presidency seems set to reenact this “Jekyll and Hyde” routine on a weekly basis.

The three words you are least likely to hear from an academic are “I was wrong.” Well, I was wrong to argue against “Brexit,” as I admitted in public last week.

“It Can’t Happen Here.’’ That was the title of Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel in which the fascistic Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip is elected president and within months transforms the United States into an American Reich. Well, maybe it just did happen here.

“Yo. Ev’ry action has an equal, opposite reaction.”

The box office-busting musical “Hamilton’’ could not have been more timely. Apart from anything else, it has reminded Americans that the politics of their republic has always been a blood sport. At least this year we didn’t have an actual duel of the sort that killed Alexander Hamilton in 1804.

In the age of the smartphone, it’s just too good an analogy to pass up. Increasingly, as his presidential campaign flames out, Donald Trump is the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 of American politics, a phone so hurriedly assembled that it spontaneously combusts. That would make Hillary Clinton the iPhone 7. She’s essentially the same as your current president, just harder to connect to, and with inferior e-mail security.