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For Europeans, war is usually defined as diplomacy by other means. The present U.S. administration has managed to re-define diplomacy as the inconvenient but necessary window-dressing to justify military action.
Before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, Russia considered itself the heir of Rome or at least of Byzantium, the second Rome. When the Byzantine Empire fell, Russia dubbed itself the Third Rome. Byzantium had been the pre-eminent power of an unipolar world. But once on the defensive, unable to lead its empire, it fell back on a policy of balance and stability. They relied on small tilts in that balance, which went in their favor.
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