Since the conclusion of the Second World War, the world's great powers (i.e., the United States, Russia, and China) have been locked in an escalating race to develop the next game‐changing weapon. The pivotal weapon examined in this paper is hypersonics. The desire to master hypersonic weaponry is particularly strong amongst the “lesser powers” or “Davids” (e.g., Iran and North Korea), as they hold the belief that hypersonics are the “Assassin's Mace” that will grant them the critical first strike advantage against the militarily superior great powers. This study examines the intensifying “hypersonics arms race” between these nations and more importantly, the potential of this increasingly contentious rivalry to destabilize the tenuous world peace purportedly effected by the “Mutual Assured Destruction” (“MAD”) doctrine. Even if this “hypersonics arms race” does not lead to another global conflict, it does serve to flame regional tensions in the Middle East and Northeast Asia, ultimately setting the scene for proxy wars, as the great powers could ply their respective allies with hypersonics technology, with the aim of furthering their own strategic agendas.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the intensifying efforts by China and the West to harness the clean, limitless energy of nuclear fusion. However, it argues that this “holy grail” of a fusion future is only achievable through an optimal combination of mission-oriented public–private cooperation and genuine intergovernmental cooperation.Design/methodology/approachThis study deploys a case-study approach, augmented by relevant literature, to analyse the advances in fusion technology.FindingsDespite purported recent advances in fusion technology, these advances remain largely “proof of concept” experiments rather than commercially viable technologies that enable us to truly harness the infinite power of these “artificial suns”. To achieve the moonshot goal of delivering practicable “net energy gain” from fusion power, this study advocates shedding hubristic political “one-upmanship” amongst rival governments. Further, it urges focussing the ingenuity, along with the financial and scientific resources of all stakeholders (both public and private) across the globe to bring about this “fusion dawn”. Moreover, efforts to deliver fusion power face significant competition from other clean energy sources (wind, solar power and nuclear fission reactors) that are not only technically far less challenging but also economically more viable with their declining cost structures.Originality/valueThis study is possibly one of the few social science papers that examines the prospect of clean, limitless fusion power along with the challenges it faces and its societal implications.

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