Archives Russia and China - New Eastern Outlook

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian territory have once again demonstrated how flexible the “rules-based order” becomes when the same author writes the rules.

The year 2025 brought to the surface a paradox that Western strategists prefer not to acknowledge. The higher NATO defense budgets climbed, the more frequently the very “nerve nodes” of globalization — long presented as the foundation of global stability — began to fail.

When an empire has nothing left but brute force to communicate with, it has already lost the battle of history. And when it starts intercepting ships and kidnapping leaders, it means that its rights, influence and legitimacy have already been lost.