Universal States

 From: https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/my-recent-discussion-with-james-delingpole , Click Transcript so you don't have to watch the 1 hour 15 minute video.

Universal states are, let us remind ourselves, essentially negative institutions. In the first place, they arise after, and not before the breakdown of civilizations to which they bring political unity. They are not summers but Indian summers, masking autumn and presaging winter. […] There is, however, an element of ambiguity in them, for, while universal states are thus symptoms of social disintegration, they are at the same time attempts to check this disintegration and defy it. [After it’s establishment after the battle of Actium in 31 BC], the secret of Roman imperial government was the principle of indirect rule. The Hellenic universal state was conceived of by its Roman founders as an association of self-governing city-states with a fringe of autonomous principalities in the regions where the Hellenic culture had not yet struck political root. The burden of administration - which even at the end of the Hellenic time of troubles, was still publicly regarded as an honorable and covetable load - was to be left resting on the shoulders of these responsible self-governing local authorities; the imperial government was to confine itself to the twofold task of keeping the local communities in harmony with one another and protecting them against attacks from the outer barbarians; and for these limited imperial activities, a slender military framework and a light political superstructure were all that was required.

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Update: This is a quote from Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, abridged, Chapter 32-33.  I can't find an online reference to it.  There is a download of part I of the abridged Study of History here: https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/toynbee-study-of-history.pdf , but it doesn't cover Chapter 32.  Maybe there is a part II somewhere.

The above discussion with James Delingpole doesn't even mention universal states, although Toynbee is mentioned a couple of times.  The point that Sasha seems to be making is the NATO fancies itself a Universal State just like the Roman Empire did.