[anon291]

You are absolutely right about NATO, but wrong about Russia.

At the end of the day American hegemony has essentially produced the most peaceful, prosperous period ever and America is pretty open to any country joining this hegemony as long as you play by its basic rules.

This does not mean giving up your culture. American hegemony is able to allow such disparate economies and societies as Saudi Arabia and Norway to operate in fairly peaceful markets.

At the end of the day, it is in the best interest of everyone to basically do what America says.

Unlike previous regimes, America has not completely run roughshod over anyone other than people that were already doing extremely questionable things. And it doesn't matter because if your leaders kowtow enough to American demands, you can be pretty sure we will leave you alone.

So basically, Russia is going to lose and will make a fool of themselves as they already have, and America will come out of this relatively unscathed. At the end of the day, America has no real competition. The Pax Americana is substantively different than Pax Brittanica and Pax Romana, in that Americas is worldwide and there is no country able to threaten America in any meaningful way. We are blessed to be surrounded by two very friendly countries that play well with us.

Moreover all the countries that might threaten us are literally dying out.

[richrichie]

> allow such disparate economies and societies as Saudi Arabia and Norway to operate in fairly peaceful markets.

While the US operates at an arms length from KSA with none of the usual theatrics about human rights violations, LGBTQ rights, etc, it has not adopted the same approach to China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, etc. It aggressively meddles in them in cultural and political spheres, not allowing such disparate actors to operate in the same peaceful markets. The recent animosity towards China is mind boggling.

I remember Wolfowitz’s PNAC and full spectrum domination from 2001. The US seem to have lost plenty of its power projection since then. But for its vassal states, most countries do not seem to care about its sanctions on Russia.

People don’t mind a just thug keeping peace and offering protection for a reasonable sum though. The US did that role well.

[anon291]

> It aggressively meddles in them in cultural and political spheres, not allowing such disparate actors to operate in the same peaceful markets. The recent animosity towards China is mind boggling.

As I said... If the leaders of those countries simply kowtowed to american demands, you bet they would. In particula,

China -- institute free market reforms; officially announce the truth, which is that they're not communist (they haven't been for years).

Russia -- not have Putin

Iran -- not have the Ayatollah

Cuba -- not be communist

At the end of the day it is very easy to acquiesce to American demands. You simply have to not try to undo a coup they did and then never ever ever say you're communist. You can go ahead and be a dictator, but America has decided communism bad, so just don't go there and you will be okay with the US. Then let the US operate military bases on your country's soil, and voila, you will be America's friend forever. Recall that Pakistan is still an ally of the United States despite harboring its most wanted terrorist.

in other words, there are very clear paths for all these countries to not feel the full force of American sanctions. And this is what I mean by the US doesn't really care. Even with China, you can say all you want about it, but America's embrace of China has made it what it is today, despite the cold tensions.

[hulitu]

> American hegemony has essentially produced the most peaceful, prosperous period ever

In US, yes. In the rest of the world, no.

[anon291]

Just flat out false. There's less international conflict today than ever, thanks to Pax Americana .

Are there some rogue states that do not play well with American hegemony? Yes

But these states can easily make good by simply following America's terms. There are few grudges being held. No one is going to kill all their men and enslave their women. American demands are not so gruesome. They're relatively mild and would likely improve the standard of living of everyone there. I don't make this claim vacuously. Broadly speaking, everywhere that has adopted American hegemony has done incredibly well for themselves and their populace. Rationally speaking, there's no reason not to.