WIREDGOV

Middle powers can, through cooperation, retain the rules and institutions they still value.

I don't need to describe the wars under way in Ukraine and Iran, the tensions between China, the US and Japan, or, indeed, the tensions between the US and its longstanding allies in Asia and Europe in order to convince readers that these are turbulent times. But what is new about this turbulence? And why should we pay special attention now?

The two new features of today's turbulence, compared with times such as after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, or during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, are, first, for the first time since the end of the Cold War we are now seeing conflict and dangerous confrontation between the world's superpowers, America, Russia and China; and, second, that really for the first time since 1945, the US is treating its network of allies and the array of global institutions and treaties that it set up in the post-war years as enemies rather than friends, as burdens rather than assets.

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