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...to describe any of your adversary in international relations.
The international arena is not a kindergarten playground. Your country is not a kid bullied by the biggest kid in the playpen. The international arena is more like a boxing ring. Can you imagine how stupid it is to call Mayweather Jr. a bully while he's punching Pacquiao?
So, the international system is unfair? So what? That's how it has been and will always be. Don't expect that it will change because of your fucking tears. So you're seeing that power trumps everything in this world? So what? That's how it is. So you're disappointed that what you got from that Tribunal is a 501-page paper sword? Guess what, that's how it is.
Why are you allowing yourself to view yourself like this: a kid who thinks he's being bullied? Listen to me. No, you are not a kid. You are an independent sovereign State in the company of other independent sovereign States. You may be small, but the Olympian gods need not be all equally powerful in order to be gods in their own right. You are not being bullied, but outsmarted, outmanoeuvred, and outperformed. Stop this victim mentality. Now.
The international arena is a game of power. And just like any game you have to play it with finesse. Claiming you're being bullied when things don't go your way is whining. It's pathetic. And it's disheartening to see that a great nation like you is acting like this. You are a player in a strategic context, and not a kid in a playground who cries and seeks mommy when he's bruised.
Do you think it is powerful to go to The Hague and have lawyers defend your case before a group of judges who don't speak on behalf of any sovereign State? No, it's not. It makes you look weak. Those men who gave you that 501-page paper sword cannot make decisions that transforms history. Why did you waste your time with them? You are a State, an independent sovereign State, a State who shouldn't be pleading his case before a group of men who have no sovereignty, no real power to wield in the world, no real, flesh and blood authority to make an independent sovereign State do anything. Pathetic.
Power is not slapping in the face an independent sovereign State with a 501-page paper sword crafted by men with no real power in the world. Power is sitting at the negotiating table, across another independent sovereign State. Power is asking that State what his interests are, why he wants them, understanding what makes him tick. Power listens; it doesn't talk an annoying lot; it doesn't explain too much. Power doesn't debate; it doesn't argue. Power doesn't condemn; it observes. Power isn't about whining how scared, how helpless you are before any giant; power is about finding the heart that throbs in every dragon and letting it beat in the palm of your hands. Power charms, seduces, and captures you without you knowing it. Power is not chess. It's Go. It's not the loudest voice. It's the silence full of gravitas. Power listens, patiently. Then after listening, power is to look at your fellow independent sovereign State straight in the eye, in order to tell him how exactly you will be able to satisfy his interests. You give that State an offer he cannot resist. And you punctuate it with: Take it, leave it, or make a better offer. That's power. And that's how you make history. That's how you reclaim your rightful place in this world as an independent sovereign State in the presence of other independent sovereign States. That's power.
