The souvenir pictures of ramrod-backed world leaders standing alongside each other at international summits are known in the trade as 'family photos'.
But the one taken at the end of the latest meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was definitely more Addams Family than The Waltons.
On the extreme right of the front row was the hatchet-faced president of China, Xi Jinping. On his right, was the diminutive figure of the murderous Vladimir Putin and at the opposite end was the man affectionately known as 'Europe's last dictator', the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.
But what makes this portrait calculated to chill the blood is the sight of the figure on his left: Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India.
The presence of the man at the helm of the world's most populous democracy at this sinister gathering of despots and pariahs is enough to send shivers down the spine of any citizen of the free world.
For while this image was taken in eastern China, it was clearly designed to send a message to the man sitting thousands of miles away across the Pacific at the Resolute Desk in the White House and Europe's leaders based almost as far away to the West.
As Xi told his fellow delegates: 'Global governance has reached a new crossroads.'
His comment signalled the passing of the baton from the Western powers - led by the US, in partnership with Britain and its European allies - to the Chinese dictator and his like-minded strongmen.
Incredibly, these included the leader of a Nato-member country: Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, taking a break away at the SCO from arresting his political opponents at home.
And this may well not be a peaceful transition. With Russia gaining the ascendancy over the Ukraine, and China apparently poised to invade Taiwan, nobody can bet against World War Three.
After all, young men may fight wars but they are invariably started by old men, and Xi and Putin, both 72, are old men in a hurry.
If such a cataclysm does come to pass, we are hopelessly ill-prepared. As things stand, Nato - fatally undermined by an isolationist US and an enfeebled Europe - is a paper tiger. If war does break out, we might as well run up the white flag at Dover.
Make no mistake, the core members of China's new alliance are preparing for global political, economic and military domination.
The SCO was founded 24 years ago as a foil to US and Western influence in central Asia after the collapse of the USSR. Since then, it has grown, and its purpose - certainly from China and Russia's point of view - has become more anti-Western, not less.
It now includes Pakistan and Iran, as well as all the central Asian 'stans'.
For China's leader, President Xi this is part of a long- thought-out strategy to bend the global order to his will and to build up institutions and organisations that serve China's bidding, all the while wresting influence from the US.
During the summit, Xi told his fellow delegates: 'Global governance has reached a new crossroads'
No man will be more delighted at the growing success of Xi's grand plan than Russia, China's loyal -and increasingly dependent and subservient - sidekick.
Putin makes no secret of his determination to undermine Western power - and specifically the power of Nato. At the conference, he again blamed the West for his need to invade Ukraine.
But why is Narendra Modi, the leader of a country which has been aligned with the West for decades, doing there - and what does his presence signify?
He is, no doubt, at least partly motivated by a desire for revenge. US President Donald Trump's decision to slap a 50 per cent tariff on Indian exports to the US in retaliation for New Delhi's decision to become the world's biggest trader in Russian oil outraged Modi.
But he also he knows that he must engage with China to help India reach its own development goals. Both countries have long had claims on elements of each other's territory, and relations have been lukewarm at best for years.
And although China stays officially neutral amid the regular skirmishes between Pakistan and India, in practice it provides Islamabad with both moral and material support.
Chinese weaponry makes up no less than 80 per cent of Pakistan's arms, for example. So Modi attended the SCO out of fear as well as necessity.
But nothing was more striking than the love-in between Modi and Putin. Between sessions, the two men walked the corridors of the conference centre hand in hand, their faces wreathed in smiles, for all the world like teenagers in the first blush of romance.
I suppose there's nothing quite like a mutually beneficial £96 billion trade in oil to strengthen the bonds of friendship.
Both men remarked upon China's attitude of 'mutual respect'. What they mean is that - unlike the West - Xi doesn't lecture its economic partners on human rights and turns a blind eye when some of them arrest or even murder their opponents.
China's strongman also talked of opposing 'hegemonism', the 'Cold War mentality' and 'bullying practices' - all coded attacks on the US.
The truth is that the rise of the new authoritarians means more global instability, not less.
And just when it should be gearing up to stand tall, the West seems to be going through a prolonged period of crisis.
The roots of our malaise took hold in the 1990s. With victory in the Cold War and the rise of a new generation of post-1960s politicians, Western populations were led to believe that the age of ideological and great power rivalries was over. With Russia effectively bust and China opening up its markets, the idea of spending billions on the defence of the realm was seen as faintly comical.
Since then, we've bred a generation of leaders incapable of leadership or vision. While China and Russia plot and plan long-term, ours drift from month to month. They understand little about the military, let alone the more complex forms of political, economic and cyber conflict practised not only by Putin's Russia but also China and Iran.
Our own Government is yet to grasp that Beijing's highly aggressive economic strategies are designed to collapse parts of the Western economies, as well as make us dependent on the goods with which China deliberately floods our markets.
While the US economy has grown, over-regulated Europe has stifled its economy at the same time as importing very large numbers of low-skilled immigrants, which have overwhelmed welfare budgets. Defence has often been the budget to be stripped out to pay.
Across the Atlantic, Trump's White House needs to understand that alienating traditional allies such as India will only drive them into the arms of Xi and Putin's axis of authoritarianism.
Unless our leaders show leadership, vision and adopt a long-term plan to oppose this dangerous new alliance, I fear a new and darker era is slowly emerging.
Right now, our collective civilisation seems incapable of dealing with the new world order. We need not only to relearn the skills that made us great but also to be willing to promote and defend our values in the face of a truly sinister global threat.