007 is a coward writes Frank Jacobs. Highlights of his argument include:

• In all of his movies James Bond has visited ~46 countries. The majority are in safe and stable Europe. A few are in Asia and the Americas. Bond only visits Africa four times.
• Since 9/11 there have been four Bond films. Not one of them took place in a Middle Eastern country.
• This avoidance of Britain’s great battles isn’t unprecedented. During the days of The Cold War Bond was loathe to visit or fight the Soviet Union.
• As China becomes a bigger geopolitical threat to Britain, you can expect to see Bond somewhere far away, safe from the danger China may pose.

Read more about Bond’s various trips abroad, what they say about England as a great power, and speculation about where the next Bond film will be set over here.

Source: Foreign Policy