To Fear or Respect

To be "liked" is the ephemeral goal of all weak leaders.  A powerful nation cannot be liked.  It will never be liked.    Even the ancient Romans, though co-opting hundreds of principalities were not liked.  They were tenacious, not weak.   These principalities had become vessel states with duties and tributes to be exacted.  These states gained security, but they did not like their "benefactors."  The Romans well understood this, and made agreements so accommodating this exigency.

However, they were feared and respected by their masters.  This is fact. Other ancient powers simply destroyed or totally subjugated their opponents.  This is another model, not quite suited to this day.

In the more modern world the aspects of fear and respect are the concomitant twins of international relationships.  There is no master state, but there is the master of circumstance.  There is no dominant force, but there is a possible dominance upon the horizon.

Where there is no fear, and secondly respect, there is no agreement to the wishes of the dominant state.  Wishes of the masters are not, and cannot be acquiesced to.  They are ignored with the full knowledge that there will be no consequence.  Minor states can flaunt the wishes where there is no recompence.  Major states can simply ignore the mandates or directives of the master.

The master state becomes simply a large monolithic object, not mobile, not active, not integrative, and not effective.  So goes the USA in 2013.