Military power alone cannot sustain global dominance, and attempts to assert it in the face of structural decline may hasten the very outcome they seek to prevent.
Even as Washington may call and claim victory, notional or real, the global pain of the brash and so-called bold and illegal strikes will be real for years to come.
The rise of transactional unilateral diplomacy—most visibly associated with U.S. President Donald Trump—has exposed structural vulnerabilities in the alliance system.