The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War

by Jim Sciutto

Those who rationalize as realpolitik the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or a potential Chinese takeover of Taiwan, risk rationalizing the next invasion. As Estonia’s Kallas said, evoking Churchill, the hungry crocodile eventually comes for you. For the many officials around the world I interviewed for this book, the simplest lesson—as relevant today as it was in 1939—is that acts of territorial aggression by the great powers cannot succeed without then incentivizing the next acts of aggression. “We have to totally discredit the tool, policy tool, of aggression,” said Kallas. “You can’t walk away with more than you had before. Otherwise, it’s incitement to aggression.”