The very

the international system means as it happens there are dissatisfied powers who do not feel happy in the liberal order even if they to some extent benefited from it.

I mean China is a great beneficiary of the American-led

world order. It's been great for China's security, which has allowed China to

focus on its economy, so it's been a beneficiary, but of course the world was not shaped for China and so it's not

unusual even if it may be unwise for China to want to reshape the world in such a

way that it is shaped for China, which essentially means,

among other things, that China exercises hegemony throughout East Asia.

And now the good fight with Yasha Monk.

When I record these little spials at the beginning of the podcast, I obviously try to say something new, something original, something that's going to be different from what many of you have read or heard over the last few weeks. But sometimes there is occasion for saying the obvious.

And this week I felt briefly like doing that.

I remember watching the images of Russian troops invading Ukraine at the end of February 2022.

I remember anticipating seeing even more brutal images of tanks rolling through the streets of Kyiv.

I was afraid that there would be a distinct lack of solidarity with the people of Ukraine

as there has been a lack of solidarity with the people of Syria, of Georgia, of many other countries that Russia had invaded or helped to destroy.

And so after these few days of tremendous military progress for Ukraine, I think it's fine to pause for a moment and say the obvious.

To say that this is a wonderful series of successes

that we should all be proud of the Ukrainian people's fight for freedom, that it is a lesson that all of us should not be too fatalistic about the

prospects of freedom in this world. There have been many twists and turns in this war and I feel that

there may be more twists and turns in this war, but it is now clearer than ever

that Ukraine can win this war, can repel this Russian aggression.

And that makes it even clearer that those of us in comfortable countries like Germany or Italy or the United

...