Better to be Godzilla than Bambi

In international relations, better to be Godzilla than Bambi! In a recent paper, John Mearsheimer analyses great power rivalries. For him: “When assessing the geopolitical landscape, the primary aim of any state, whether democratic or authoritarian, is to ensure its own survival. That comes down to military might and alliances […] Europe would be in far better shape today if realist logic had carried the day and NATO had not expanded eastward, and especially not committed itself to eventually including Ukraine. But the die is now cast: unipolarity has given way to multipolarity and the US and its allies are now engaged in serious geopolitical rivalries with both China and Russia. These new cold wars are at least as dangerous as the original one, and maybe more so” (emphasis mine). Rather than rewriting what John Mearsheimer expressed precisely, I have chosen to share my summary of this exceptional analysis.