After the fall of authoritarian kleptocracy in Russia and China, the EU, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, NZ, Singapore, the Philippines will be briefly free to ditch the American empire's security umbrella. But don't expect them to since no honeymoon from history lasts very long. Ask Vietnam, which had to fight a brief war with post-Mao China in 1979 and the Chechens, Dagestanis, Moldovans, Georgians, Tadzhiks, Kirghyz who have been the targets of Russian imperial intervention since the end of the USSR.

That's why all the former Warsaw Pact states and the Baltics clamored for NATO entry ASAP after 1991. America didn't grow NATO, their justified fear of Russia did. You have, of course, never been to those countries nor talked to their citizens. I've been there many times and taught there (Poland, Romania) while living in Latvia.

But since power abhors a vacuum, don't expect a conflict-free world. Remove a distant bully and the nearby bullies rear their heads. After the Uighurs and Tibetans free themselves from China, they'll have local bullies to worry about.

The idea that five centuries of the genocidal Muscovy imperialism that built Russia was defensive and that Russia is a victim is utterly laughable. https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/jailbreak-unlocking-russias-prison-of-nations-b506fa75e301

The US was the most reluctant imperialist of the 20th century, backing into informal empire as Europe committed suicide twice. In 1940 Jane's Defense Weekly ranked America as the 22nd military power in the world. Number 21 was Belgium. Then Lend Lease saved the UK and the USSR from Germany, which saved all of us from living in the alternate history of The Man in the High Castle.