The US is also capable of recklessness. As the writer Robert Kagan pointed out, America is a “dangerous nation”. The fact that it is in relative decline only sharpens that trait. Contested hegemons rarely go quietly into the night. Much of today’s foreign policy debate in the US focuses on the risks of miscalculating with China or Russia by confusing their red lines. The world would be a calmer place if China and Russia were equally worried about America’s red lines.
