States care about relative wealth, because economic might is the foundation of military might.
John MearsheimerA state's potential power is based on the size of its population and the level of its wealth.
John MearsheimerOffensive realism predicts that the United States will send its army across the Atlantic when there is a potential hegemon in Europe that the local great powers cannot contain by themselves.
John MearsheimerThis self-defeating behavior, so the argument goes, must be the result of warped domestic politics.
John Mearsheimer