"Can we all try to instill a strong sense of principle and authenticity in our foreign policy so we can be taken more seriously by the international community?"
Short answer: If "we're" talking about America...no.
Long Answer: "An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?"
(Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?)
I'm going to have to come back and read this again, and probably again and again. There is a lot to digest.
Separately, I don't know if this will be useful for your future writings, but there is an assumption in "Like any divorce, the couple try to “decouple” from each other as soon as possible" that I don't think is always true. If both of the couple want to decouple as soon as possible, then that's optimal. If one or both of the couple don't really want to decouple, but rather are attempting to re-engineer their partner into some dream and use the divorce process as leverage then it can be a hell of a mess. (showing some of my age: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098621).
China wants the USA, SE Asian, South American, and African consumer and industrial markets that the USA abandoned, the USA wants to financialize China the way it did Europe through the EU and tried to do to Russia. They each just want a compliant partner in crime.
"Can we all try to instill a strong sense of principle and authenticity in our foreign policy so we can be taken more seriously by the international community?"
Short answer: If "we're" talking about America...no.
Long Answer: "An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?"
(Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?)
...........Axel Oxenstierna
I'm going to have to come back and read this again, and probably again and again. There is a lot to digest.
Separately, I don't know if this will be useful for your future writings, but there is an assumption in "Like any divorce, the couple try to “decouple” from each other as soon as possible" that I don't think is always true. If both of the couple want to decouple as soon as possible, then that's optimal. If one or both of the couple don't really want to decouple, but rather are attempting to re-engineer their partner into some dream and use the divorce process as leverage then it can be a hell of a mess. (showing some of my age: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098621).
China wants the USA, SE Asian, South American, and African consumer and industrial markets that the USA abandoned, the USA wants to financialize China the way it did Europe through the EU and tried to do to Russia. They each just want a compliant partner in crime.