Like NATO, EU etc?
this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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Ever heard about the EU?
The "middle-powers" are doing exactly that. Right now it's a global race between "rule of law" and "might makes right".
Like the European Union?
Made me think of the Africa Union or the Alliance of the Sahel States.
You mean like The European Union?
It's generally not attractive for leaders of the countries because it means giving up some of their powers + getting extra external oversight would curtail their remaining powers. People have a really hard time giving up power and/or control, and for the big egos that become head of state, it's especially hard.
That unwillingness to give up power is why every EU member state has veto rights and EU decision making can be paralyzed by a single rogue member. EU oversight against corruption is also limited to corruption with EU funds, national politicians their grifts are not directly hindered by the EU.
The way that the EU gets most improvements done, is by creating a directive (which could be blocked beforehand by a single member) and then members have x years to implement the directive into their own laws/governance in their own way. Failing to do so will result in fines for that member. It's a slow process, but it's been very good for gradual improvement. Crises however can only be tackled by the members having a meeting and searching a consensus amongst their selfish interests.
This slow hands-off approach also means that there is a lot less political whiplash as one party loses and another comes into power, which makes the EU directives easier to digest for the varied members and their diverse circumstances. With a fully federal Europe, it would rip itself apart sooner or later by politicians who put their nation's short term self interest above the collective (see Serbia in Yugoslavia for an example). I'm personally in favor of a more federalist Europe (in particular for foreign policy + external borders + military, and less veto power), but it should still leave most powers with the member states, directives good, dictates bad.
They do, but the alliances are unstable. The problem is in determining what you mean by compete. Militarily that's next to impossible. The advanced weaponry the US, Russia, and China can wield requires an advanced technological society to produce. Many smaller countries just don't have the infrastructure, and worse would be hard pressed to access the materials to make them. Even fpv drones, like the Ukrainians are using against Russia, require advanced computing technologies that take decades to develop internally. But unless the countries have all of the materials within their borders they'd have to trade for it and be at the whim of the superpowers who control most of the world's supply. The science is available for much of the tech with maybe a 20 year lag time, with more current science being highly controlled and classified.
Economically there is more leeway. If the allied countries had natural resources or cheap labor they could trade that with other nations, but some resources such as oil, lithium, and rare earth metals pose an serious and deadly risk for any government looking to leverage them on a global market. Dozens of countries across the world have been destabilized and overthrown by the CIA alone, nevermind the 20 or so countries the US has directly invaded and dismantled for favorable oil trading.
Realistically a small group of countries allied together is the same as the individual countries going it alone. You'd need a larger alliance that is continent scale to have any real power when dealing with the superpowers. But even that is no guarantee as the US/EU relationship demonstrates. Without military strength the alliance would have no hard power to wield on the world's stage. Any nascent alliance would have to overcome meddling from the CIA/FSB/MSS if they started to become successful and threaten superpower interests.
Realistically the only countries on Earth that are sovereign are the superpowers, the rest are subject to their demands.
They do, when they can get along long enough.
Like CARICOM in the Carribean?
Russia was only like half the USSR by population.
Ho! They tried to… it’s just really hard when all the big guys have your debt tied to their banks
Mark Carney proposed this last year. I suspect that things are happening behind the scenes to enact this idea.