Trump effect:
Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary Lutnick: 'We're very, very focused on America's golden age coming'.[1]
TRUMP EFFECT: $8 TRILLION in U.S. Investments and Climbing, White House, 2025
"We will stand bravely. Dream boldly. And nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans. The future is ours and our golden age has just begun." - Donald Trump, 2025[2]
Putin effect:
Arguments that Russia is no longer a great power
Back to Bipolarity: How China's Rise Transformed the Balance of Power Free (Russia and India are not great powers), International Security, MIT Press, Volume 49, Issue 2, 2024
What are the arguments that Russia is not a great power?: "Arguments against Russia being a great power focus on its limited economic and technological capabilities, coupled with a history of impulsive foreign policy decisions and internal struggles. While Russia possesses a significant military, it lacks the economic and technological strength of true great powers."
"But once Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed his war machine, that narrative of Russian power swiftly unraveled. The Ukrainian army, supposedly outgunned and with little chance of resisting conventionally, fought back with brains and ferocity. And Ukrainian civilians, whom many experts thought to be divided over the question of the country’s relationship to Russia, rallied to defend their homeland. Meanwhile, Putin’s military floundered. Its weapons and doctrine proved to be lackluster at best, and its soldiers performed far worse than expected, thanks in part to corruption and poor training. Hundreds of thousands, maybe more than a million, Russian men of military age fled the country to avoid conscription. And just last week, the Wagner paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin briefly seized control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and threatened to plunge the country into civil war, sending his mercenary fighters to within 120 miles of Moscow. This stunning revelation of Russian weakness calls into question not just Moscow’s status as a great power but also the very concept of a great power." - Foreign Affairs, 2023[16]
December 2024 was one of the WORST months for Russian influence in the world
Fall of Putin’s Global Empire: Russia’s Waning Influence, Kyiv Post, December 2024.
Russia's counterweight to NATO is falling apart, December 2024.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization: A Lifeless, Shambling ‘Alliance’, 2024, Georgetown University
Russian power is in decline