For a few years now there’s been a lively debate about whether the world is being divided into great-power spheres of influence, with China, Russia, and the United States all trying to exert influence in their own neighborhoods. Yet the latest display of American power in the war with Iran has me thinking about an argument Michael Beckley made earlier this year, that there is just “one true sphere of influence”—the one the United States controls. China and Russia “can intimidate neighbors and sow disruption” but “cannot consolidate control over their own regions” or project power farther afield the way the United States can. What will define international politics in the coming years, Beckley contends, is whether Washington “can use its dominance to sustain order rather than merely exploit advantage.”
Until next week, |
