Politics

Jul 23, 2026 Harold James

Foolish military interventions driven by outdated calculations of economic power have thoroughly discredited the old big powers. Thucydides might well have appreciated the irony of a world in which smaller, weaker countries like Ukraine and Iran can expose Russia and the United States, respectively, as paper tigers.

PRINCETON—World politics has gone topsy-turvy. No longer do the old great powers seem to control everyone’s destiny. They have been weakened and discredited: Russia is steadily disintegrating, and Donald Trump’s presidency has diminished America’s international standing. The old powers may still have golden heads, but their feet of clay have been exposed.