Sure, you might also be just as interested in a society capable of working towards something like the LHC or ITER, by taking care of its citizens and through di

Sure, you might also be just as interested in a society capable of working towards something like the LHC or ITER, by taking care of its citizens and through diplomacy. I think it's a more interesting goal than controlling the seas so that people can get cheap trinkets from China. And don't get me wrong, I'm just as addicted to my trinkets from China as anybody else, and I benefit from US hegemony. Just trying to think from a total outsider's perspective.