> Sweden and Denmark haven't been hegemons because they haven't needed to be.
That's exactly right, and I used nearly exactly those words in a recent comment.
Important to note: The free world - economically advanced democracies excluding the US - is the largest economy in the world, larger than the US by about 30%, with an even larger population.
These countries have a historically unprecedented incentive to work much more closely together now, and there is a massive void to fill.
That is not how it works, many of those countries will need to align with China or be conquered.
We're long past the point where we can say "how it works" from how it used to work.
The incentive is there now, when it wasn't before. Cooperation emerges under external pressures, almost as a rule.
Align with China so they can protect us against the US?