There was only a skirmish over the Dadu River.

The currency wars themselves are merely a skirmish.

After this skirmish, no engagement occurred for a month.

The Libyan Egyptian War was a short border war between Libya and Egypt in July 1977.

After the death of Emperor Honorius and the usurpation of Joannes in 423 internal power struggles broke out in the Roman Empire.

Since then, Egypt has fought a war with Libya and sporadically clashed with Sudan. But not a shot has been fired across Sinai.

Their units skirmished during the Houthi campaign, and the two engaged in a power struggle over defense of the radio and television stations.

Improvements such as this were instrumental in the good performance of the Army in border skirmishes with Colombia (1911 and 1932) and a major war against Ecuador (1941).

Yet underneath the common battlegrounds of political debate in Britain and Germany and elsewhere in Europe, value clashes are lurking.

The local warlord, who hated Chiang Kaishek, let Mao pass. As a reward, he was later made a minister in the Communist government.

The currency wars themselves are merely a skirmish. The big problem is that the core of the world s financial system has become unstable, and reckless risk taking will once again lead to great collateral damage.

2005 saw the return of seemingly buried territorial disputes, such as defining the maritime limits between Chile and Peru, as well as the revanchist pressures that are mounting in Bolivia for recovering access to the sea that was lost in the 19th century, an urge strengthened by Bolivia s growing willingness to perhaps use its gas exports as a pressure point.

It is what has driven Obama to go to the mat with China on recent disputes within the World Trade Organization and on restrictions on Chinese investment in Oregon wind farms, and what has led to saber rattling by Romney on currency manipulation and trade sanctions.