Book by Emmanuel Todd presenting an alternative model to the traditional "Political Realist" model of the world as Weberian, Hobbesian Nation-States. Todd argues that for the West, the Nation-State no longer exists.
Book opens with critiquing the analysis of Ukraine/Russia SMO by John Mearsheimer
Firstly, Mearsheimer's "realist" perspective fails to represent the cultural aspect of Russia and Putin's perspective
Mearsheimer's perspective is compatible with Putin's because they model the world as:
1. Weberian nation-states, that pursue civil peace
2. Hobbesian agents, that ensure their survival through a show of force
But the Russian conception is better modelled by Sovereignty, the idea that a state controls its own politics without foreign influence.
Many official documents regard with contempt the "vassalization" of the European Union and describe Ukraine as an American "protectorate".
Secondly, in "The Great Delusion", Mearsheimer describes the nation-state as a state and nation constituted on a shared culture and common values.
But in projecting onto western governments the concept of "Nation-State", Putin and Mearsheimer attribute a psychosis to them, using phrases like "The Empire of Lies" and "Delusion". But the reality is that in the west, the Nation-State no longer exists.
The author argues that nations in Open-Economy Macroeconomics no longer constitute a proper nation-state, and claims that chapters 4-10 explain this in detail.
He also argues that Nations without a powerful middle-class no longer constitute a nation-state, briefly citing Aristotle's "Politics" where he says the role of the legislature is to facilitate the middle class.
In America, there is longer a shared culture between the masses and their leadership; the implosion of WASP culture and its replacement with a group of leaders driven only by power and violence, the "neocons".