It had an astonishing success, selling two million copies worldwide, principally because of the 20-page postscript added at his publisher’s prompting. That it happened just before the Soviet bloc exploded and its regime collapsed and Japan peaked before a long relative decline took some credibility from Kennedy’s analysis. That makes it instructive to compare his great powers to Trump’s National Security Strategy. In a section cut from the final published version of the NSS, it advocates a core of five great powers – the US, China, Russia, India and Japan. “As empires grab resources and discard international law, the EU must forge a new social federalism – or become a vassal”.

Source: The Irish Times February 09, 2026 13:40 UTC