A vertigo-inducing essay by the great Robert Kagan. It lays out what the coming world of “spheres of influence”, which is arriving very fast as the American empire commits seppuku, will actually mean. It’s not attractive.

What does Europe do, for instance, now that it faces hostile and aggressive great powers on both its eastern and western flanks? Not only Russia, but now the United States, too, threaten the security and territorial integrity of European states and work to undermine their liberal governments. A passive Europe could become a collection of fiefdoms—some under Russian influence, some under American influence, some perhaps under Chinese influence—­its states’ sovereignty curtailed and its economies plundered by one or more of the three empires. Will the once-great European nations surrender to this fate?

Hopeful spoiler: he says we may not.