I would ask how many countries are truly sovereign today? Seems more like the vast majority of nations are subservient to the USA or to an increasing extent, China. I would suggest that the EU, Japan, Canada, Australasia, S.Korea and most of Lain America and Africa are monetarily and militarily subservient tribute states to the USA. USA controls the legacy institutions of global governance and banking. Iran, Russia, N.Korea are now reliant upon China for international trade payments...and China has built its CIPS and mBridge alternatives to the US petrodollar SWIFT trade payments hegemony. Saudi Arabia and others have joined mBridge. Most nations are also increasingly dependent upon China for trade - both in selling their commodity exports and imports of manufactured goods. Are there any truly independent nations except for USA and China?