The economic and diplomatic arenas are both canaries in the coal mine from a policy standpoint. When you see publicity around wargames, they are very much used as messaging to our own rivals.

I've seen an increase of these kinds of comments and conversations after the Russian invasion in 2022, but what most normies seem to have forgotten or not realized is that Russia and Ukraine have been in an actual shooting war since 2014, and US and NATO forces have been in actual armed conflicts with the Russian Armed Forces (not just Wagner) since 2015 in Syria and Libya.

The US (and our core Asia allies - Japan, Taiwan, Phillipines, SK) and China have not been in an actual shooting conflict yet. Situations of course can degrade, but you would have a very public leadtime of 6-9 months before any such conflict.