Russia has struggled to maintain strategic momentum in Southeast Asia because of Western sanctions. The Eurasian powerhouse’s setbacks in Southeast Asia will ultimately strengthen the centrality of both China and the U.S. in shaping the regional security architecture.

The European Union will see sanctions through regardless of cost. Meanwhile, it is feeling the backlash. As pressure continues to advance, the trouble will ferment, eroding their resolve. Will the EU be able to tough it out? That’s anything but certain.

The failure of the U.S. president’s Mideast visit in July can be attributed largely to insensitivity over the legitimate concerns of GCC countries. It’s yet another example of America’s long-standing pattern of pushing for its own agenda at the expense of others’ dignity.

Its biggest troubles come from Western sources, which have levied sanctions and provided military aid to Ukraine. While Russia has lost the ability to manipulate international politics, an alignment with China could add new variables.

There is uncertainty in the relationship between the EU, the U.S. and China due to the EU’s increased dependence on Russian Oil and Chinese goods and markets, amidst the Ukraine war and increased tensions between the U.S., China and Russia.

A peaceful resolution may be achieved in Ukraine but only under certain conditions - ones which don’t appear to be materializing any time soon.

When President Lyndon B. Johnson sent two battalions of U.S. Marines ashore the beaches at Danang in Vietnam on March 8, 1965, he probably had never imagined that America’s subsequent gradual military escalation would reach the height of over half a million troops, suffering more than 58,000 casualties, and eventually resulting in a totally disgraceful withdrawal after 8 years of brutal but futile fighting to shore up the Saigon regime

The abusive use of alliances in the region will only hurt. Judging from history and current reality, peace will not flower with a China of 1.4 billion people trapped in stagnation, nor will it help to foster hostile interactions with its neighbors.

Competition with the United States has become a catalyst for change in the way China deals with countries in its own neighborhood. A sophisticated approach in Asia will be required as China balances all its interactions.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, he envisaged a quick seizure of Kyiv and a change of government analogous to Soviet interventions in Budapest in 1956 and Prague in 1968. But it wasn’t to be. The war is still raging, and no one knows when or how it will end.