Back in the halcyon days of the early 1990s, the end of the Cold War promised a new dawn of peace and freedom. As history’s ghosts were laid to rest, the only downside seemed to be for thriller writers: with the Soviet Union a memory, who would be the bad guys? In the event, reality came up trumps. The collapse of the Soviet system did not usher in a new era of harmony and stability. Quite the opposite, in fact. The ghosts of history still march through the global corridors of power, a zombie army feeding off old grievances, instigating…