> The U.S. and China are unified markets that together comprised 42% of global GDP and 52% of global defense spending in 2021. Their ability to leverage hard mi

> The U.S. and China are unified markets that together comprised 42% of global GDP and 52% of global defense spending in 2021. Their ability to leverage hard military power and economic coercion is an insurmountable obstacle to the emergence of the other powers that would make a multipolar world order. With the potential long-term exception of India, no country has the size and strategic resources to compete individually, and current multinational institutions like the UN and the EU are built on soft foundations which cannot be transformed into hard power. … > For now, the Ukraine war is hastening the birth of a new world order, but it isn’t a multilateral one. The U.S. and China are establishing themselves as the two separate suns that all other nations orbit.