John J. Mearsheimer

as the unipolar moment wore on.

And then once Russia becomes a great power in roughly 2017, the United States is interested in knocking Russia out of the ranks of the great powers, right?

We understand that they've become a great power, but we'd like to knock them out of the ranks.

And of course...

You want to understand that the Russians, after 2017, when they were a great power, are resisting our efforts to bring Ukraine into NATO.

And this is just unacceptable to us.

So we begin to think of ways to undermine Russia, to knock Russia out of the ranks of the great powers.

And if you fast forward to late 2021, early 2022, remember the war in Ukraine starts in

on February 24th, 2022.

If you go back, let's say, to December 27th, 2021, December 2021, and ramp forward to when the war actually starts, what you see, if you look carefully, is that Putin is going to great lengths to try to avoid a war.

He does not want a war.

The United States makes no effort

to work with the Russians to avoid a war.

It's really quite remarkable.

Absolutely.

This is right before.

Yes.

This is right before in February.

That's exactly right.

And then just think about this.