In "Money as a weapon. How the economy decides on war and peace", Ulrike Herrmann takes a look behind the scenes of the new world order and explains why she believes the risk of war is so high - and what can be done in Europe to secure peace.

The author has studied major international conflicts and analyzes that the reasons are not only historical, psychological or political. Using Russia as an example, she shows how the country's economic development makes permanent wars likely in the future.

And she describes China's rise to superpower status and explains how President Xi has maneuvered his country into an economic dead end, which he is trying to conceal with his aggression against Taiwan.

Ulrike Herrmann, born in Hamburg in 1964, has been a business correspondent for taz since 2000. She is the author of numerous SPIEGEL bestsellers, most recently "The End of Capitalism", which has been translated into numerous languages.