(USN) The problem with superpowers, wrote Henry Kissinger in 1979, is that they often act like “two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.”
This principle from the realpolitik statesman, that the world’s most powerful nations are often oblivious to their opponents’ deep dysfunctions, may explain data compiled by U.S. News as a part of its 2018 Best Countries ranking, breaking down how respondents from particular nations view the world. […]
“Russia’s emergence on the international stage as a powerful player moved Western media to ascribe to Putin – and Russia – omnipotent qualities,” says Ivan Kurilla, a professor at the European University at Saint Petersburg. “Putin was featured more than once on the cover of Time magazine, and Russia was in almost every single media outlet issue since the end of 2016. Certainly, it resulted in the growing perception of Russia as a powerful player. Cold War rhetoric legacy has also helped to frame ‘Russia debate’ in the West as debate about arch-enemy.”
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