Russian vassalization of Ukraine

[Dylan]

[exploited]

Yeah agreed. It did make things easier though.

[Dylan]

[exploited]

[Dylan]

Not really, no. Most countries over which we previously competed for influence with the USSR now just line up at the West's trough.

[exploited]

The loss of most of your dictators in the Middle East, the rise of China, the rise of India, the militarization of Japan, as well as the further integration of the EU... Well, let's just say your confidence is completely unwarranted and bewildering.

It's as if you think it is still 1994.

[Dylan]

[fstarcstar]

[gla22]

The cold war might have been less complex but that doesn't mean it was 'easier'. We came very close to nuclear armageddon during the cold war. Not to mention there was chronic instability in much of Latin America and the Caribbean. In today's world there is little chance of nuclear Armageddon and the America's are relatively stable.

[broken robot]

@Dylan

Yeah none of those are really "competitors" to the West in the strong sense, except maybe China. But it has a different policy altogether of messing with territories within its own backyard, not really trying to influence the politics of other countries. As long as it can get its oil and resources out of Africa, it's content with whatever regime on the ground.

Those countries are less competitors and more often perturbed allies that want to put a brake on the unilateral assertion of the US which for better or worse has been working (case in point: Syria).