Occasionally, someone expresses a thought whose general utility far outdistances the purposes of its invention. So with the famous remark of an Italian communist nearly a century ago: "The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born." In this interregnum, Antonio Gramsci added, "a great variety of morbid symptoms appears".
Gramsci likely would not approve of my appropriating his remark about Europe's civilisational order to describe the plight of US grand strategy, but it fits the case too well to ignore. How so?
Already a subscriber? Log in
Read the full story and more at $9.90/month
Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month
ST One Digital
$9.90/month
No contract
ST app access on 1 mobile device
Unlock these benefits
All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com
Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device
E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you