An Inside Job

From China to Iran to Russia and beyond, a unifying goal is to upend the current geopolitical playing field and replace it with a new world order that has a country other than America—and a system of government other than Western democracy—at the top. Leaders in these countries revel in a distracted America with its influence spread thin across many international crises from the Red Sea to Ukraine. But ask any expert about the vulnerability of America’s superpowerdom and they’ll tell you unequivocally that the greatest threat comes from within. Or as one European ambassador put it: “The U.S. is a ‘fat buffalo trying to take a nap’ as hungry wolves approach … ‘I can hear those Champagne bottle corks popping in Moscow — like it’s Christmas every f-cking day.'” Nahal Toosi in Politico Magazine: Why the World Is Betting Against American Democracy.