America And Russia Suffering From Cognitive Fatigue

America’s disorder is visible for all to see, but Russia’s authoritarian system conceals a deeper cognitive fatigue that may leave Putin’s regime far weaker—and more dangerous—than it appears.

Allan J. Feifer | September 13, 2026

The world periodically rebalances itself. The last great rebalancing occurred after the Second World War, when the United States became the undisputed leader of the free world and the Soviet Union eventually reached the height of its influence before cratering spectacularly. Today, new usurpers are claiming they represent the future, principally China, Islam, and Russia. The U.S. won’t necessarily lose the mantle of leadership, but it will be challenged.

The U.S. has had a good run, but, like so many other powers before it, has lost much of its essential grounding and vigor, a victim of strategic complacency and too much easy prosperity. No country has a guaranteed or even implied “sell-by date.” Its longevity depends on its ability to maintain internal consistency and reject a big-tent mentality that treats all ideas as equal. History amply demonstrates that they are not. It also reveals that when internal discipline recedes, so do a country’s fortunes. We are at that moment today.

We’ll concentrate on Russia, but the same lessons can be applied to China and to Islam’s challenge to Western values and traditions, which threatens us as much as any frontal assault. The essential takeaway is that our country can face any number of enemies if we remain grounded in our values and traditions, especially the moral confidence that binds us together as a people. At present, a growing number of our citizens have lost, or are losing, their confidence that America is unique and special—and, warts and all, the best example of what a country should aspire to be.

America and Russia are both suffering from what I term cognitive fatigue, though for different reasons.

Nations become cognitively fatigued when their collective ability to process complexity, maintain coherence, and act with discipline erodes. It’s not about weakness—it’s about overload, revealed........

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