Suppose you were a US government official and you read the following in a Russian or Chinese state-owned newspaper op-ed page:
One of the most intriguing ideas is the creation of a treaty-based “Concert of Autocracies” that, like COMECON or the Warsaw Pact, would admit members only if they met strict requirements. The new institution would allow the authoritarian states to work together as a concerted force within such institutions as the United Nations and could eventually replace the United Nations as a forum for legitimizing international security actions if the United Nations itself proved resistant to reform.
Holy shit, right? New Cold War! Right there in the newspaper. So how are Russian and Chinese officials supposed to react to Jackson Diehl’s op-ed in The Washington Post?