Stephen M. Walt
In books and movies, it’s easy to predict what will happen to a bully. They will torment the hero for a while, but eventually someone will stand up to them, expose their weaknesses, and deliver their comeuppance. You’ve seen it repeatedly: Harry Potter humiliates Draco Malfoy and defeats Voldemort; Marty McFly bests Biff not once but thrice; Cinderella gets the handsome Prince Charming and her mean stepsisters get nothing; Tom Brown triumphs over Flashman, Elizabeth Bennet defies Lady Catherine de Bourgh and wins Mr. Darcy’s love. This familiar plotline is a comforting reminder that good eventually triumphs over evil.
The problem is, alas, that real life isn’t a book or a Hollywood movie. Indeed, 2024 has been a damn good year for bullies. Russian President Vladimir Putin is winning in Ukraine, albeit at a frightful cost. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s illiberal brand of populism is on a roll in Europe. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still in power in Israel, despite exposing his country to Hamas’s attack in October 2023, presiding over a genocidal campaign that has taken tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives, and an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. And U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is returning to the White House, with the world’s richest bully—Elon Musk—at his side (for now).
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