I'm pretty sure that last decade or so has shown that Europe doesn't spend enough. It's not just Russia's invasion. Military action in Libya was reliant on the US to sustain more than a few days of action.

There hasn't been direct conflict between powers since it was created, so I'd say you're wrong. Think we're far more tense in the cold war era than now.

The UN has largely worked as intended, even now. It's purpose is to allow the world powers to peacefully interact with each other and control everyone else.

This is becoming a really good case study for austerity working. Argentina still isn't great, but they were bordering on hyperinflation and are now stablizing.

Everyone should meet someone that worked in the mortgage industry pre 2008. The number of things that were not only allowed, but perfectly legal were absurd.

• appraisal was basically a bribe for any number you wanted.
• no document loans were far more available for anyone.
• mortgages had no real chain of custody after sale.
• there wasn't any real way to verify the risk of a mortgage security pre 2008.
• variable rates didn't have lifetime caps on rates, and reporting the details of how they functioned weren't required.

China is slowly transitioning from a developing country, but it's a slow process as new agreements are signed and old ones expire.

NA and EU wouldn't be a rounding error, China wouldn't magically be more powerful than everyone else combined. The EU can already make the US and it's companies make concessions, that wouldn't change with China replacing the US.

As far as emissions China already hit the point they couldn't ignore it. That's why they are rolling out so much solar and nuclear, the Internet being flooded with pictures of absurdly bad smog already forced that issue.

Global power doesn't tend to be a peaceful transition though. If China does make a play to become the dominant force by then, it's bad news for everyone living right now.

There are benefits China has that will go away as they transition, which could also cause them to stumble. No longer being considered a developing nation, any poverty will be 100% on them to fix, international agreements will expect them to contribute instead of receiving, emissions will be more heavily scrutinized. Other countries will not be a tolerant about the rampant IP theft and extreme protectionism of their domestic markets.

Like most international groups of the doesn't commit resources to it, their effective reach is greatly diminished. We saw this with Libya, without us fuel and munitions most jets would be grounded in about a week.