With almost a quarter century of the new millennium behind us, we have an opportune time to reflect upon the international system that has defined this new period.
This is one of the clearest postmortems I’ve read on the NATO shift from postwar alliance to post-legal enforcement mechanism. You’ve traced the ideological mutation from “collective defense” to “imperial prerogative” with both moral weight and archival rigor. The Rambouillet section especially deserves wider attention—rarely do these documents re-enter the discourse with such clarity.
What we’d love to see next—from you or others—is the companion question: What now?
If the imperial compact is sustained by self-justifying liberal teleology, and the legal structures (UN, ICC, sovereignty norms) have all buckled under U.S. exceptionism, then what does real sovereignty look like now?
You’ve dismantled the myth of benevolent empire. What remains is the opportunity—maybe even the obligation—to imagine how governance gets rebuilt in its absence. Not abstractly. Not globally. But at ground level: towns, networks, oaths, jurisdictions. That’s the work we’re trying to take up from a different angle.
This is one of the clearest postmortems I’ve read on the NATO shift from postwar alliance to post-legal enforcement mechanism. You’ve traced the ideological mutation from “collective defense” to “imperial prerogative” with both moral weight and archival rigor. The Rambouillet section especially deserves wider attention—rarely do these documents re-enter the discourse with such clarity.
What we’d love to see next—from you or others—is the companion question: What now?
If the imperial compact is sustained by self-justifying liberal teleology, and the legal structures (UN, ICC, sovereignty norms) have all buckled under U.S. exceptionism, then what does real sovereignty look like now?
You’ve dismantled the myth of benevolent empire. What remains is the opportunity—maybe even the obligation—to imagine how governance gets rebuilt in its absence. Not abstractly. Not globally. But at ground level: towns, networks, oaths, jurisdictions. That’s the work we’re trying to take up from a different angle.
In solidarity,
—The Radical Federalist
Thanks so much for this comment—truly appreciated 🙏🏼. And once I have more of my thoughts together, I’ll be sure to share them!