The success of any country’s foreign policy has always been, and will always be, dependent on that country’s economic and military power being greater, in relative terms, than its rivals. Theorists may disagree, but history does not.

The soldier often does not see the overarching plan
But multiply him by the million score
And add the workers at the forges, each a common man
And multiply them by the millions more
Who work the fields and icy sea and mine the blackened coal
Truck drivers who bring bounty to our door
The women and the children who bring love to mind and soul
And let us know what all of this is for
Then add the men who tap the pools of oil beneath their feet
To run the planes and tanks and guns and ships
Projecting power where blue water runs beneath the fleet
So politicians have the table chips
Without all this the table game is waiting for the scraps
Be handed by the winners to the weak
While theorists write nobly of equality perhaps
And sit in silence for permit to speak