THE POWER OF THE POWERLESS — STRATEGIC EXECUTION AND DIRECTIVE 2026–2030 VOLUME 2

This volume is the logical and operational continuation of the first volume of this work, entitled The Architecture of Asymmetry, published in 2025. While Volume I focused on laying out the conceptual framework—the grammar of relations between unequal states, the genealogy of deterrence by the weak, the analytical categories inherited from classical realism, and their reinterpretation in light of the post-2022 world—Volume II delves into the most challenging and, therefore, most fruitful terrain: that of execution. Writing about strategic execution at a time when the international order is being reconfigured before our very eyes is, by its very nature, an inconclusive task. The analyst finds himself in the uncomfortable position of a cartographer mapping coastlines that are still being carved out by the tides. However, I have assumed that the exercise is worthwhile, even if partially out of date at the time of publication: because the way of thinking about the problem—its categories, hypotheses, and falsification criteria—survives the circumstances of the moment. That is the contribution this work aims to make.