The Russian threat to invade Ukraine should concern every person on Earth, writes historian and author Yuval Noah Harari.

“If it again becomes normative for powerful countries to wolf down their weaker neighbours, it would affect the way people all over the world feel and behave, he says.

“The first and most obvious result of a return to the law of the jungle would be a sharp increase in military spending at the expense of everything else. The money that should go to teachers, nurses and social workers would instead go to tanks, missiles and cyber weapons.”

Harari continues: “A return to the jungle would also undermine global co-operation on problems such as preventing catastrophic climate change or regulating disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering. It isn’t easy to work alongside countries that are preparing to eliminate you. And as both climate change and an AI arms race accelerate, the threat of armed conflict will only increase further, closing a vicious circle that may well doom our species.”