Russia has a lot of natural resources and is not very found of the United States. Putin has not had much respect for Bush or Obama. However, he did seem to get along fine with Trump. (Did he really like Trump, or just think he was easy to manage?) Putin does come across as a bully and is willing to use "KGB" techniques to get things done. There have been cases of political rivals being poisoned as well as "framed" bombing attempts and propaganda. However, he is much more calculating than a mere bully. He has a long term plan. He is well educated (with a PhD) and has spent plenty of time in the political system. He will "play by the rules" in a manner that suits him. He was able to take down oligarchs that were not toeing the line by convicting them of past fraudulent behavior. (Pretty much everyone accumulated their wealth through misbehavior, but only those that get on his bad side are subject to persecution.) The analysis is especially poignant today as parts of Ukraine are being invaded (or as he says "being protected with peacekeeping forces.)
Russia possesses a great deal of natural resources. It provides much of the oil and gas for Europe. However, this must go through pipelines. The "deals" with cheap energy had both benefited and hurt Ukraine. Things get worse when Russia cuts off the spigots. Russia also has the ability to impact other parts of Europe by curtailing shipments.
There are also many other regions rich in natural resources, yet poor in governance. Saudi Arabia is an important one that has an economy based almost entirely of oil and pilgrimages. However, the oil production has not been keeping pace with population growth, leading towards tensions.
The United States evolved to be the default world currency. Most energy transactions are in dollars. The dollar tends to be the reserve currency for foreign nations. Countries will often get dollars for the oil and then use those dollars to buy US debt. This helps the US to have access to cheap goods (but at the expense of a depressed internal manufacturing economy.) As countries such as China and Russia broker deals among themselves without dollars, that leaves the US in a more precarious situation. The economic boycott of Iranian oil had made things worse for the US in that it showed players how they can bypass the US to trade.
Our economy consumes large amounts of energy. This will leave us at least somewhat dependent on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. The dollar is at risk as other currencies become more common. The book did not cover crypto, which could be an existential threat on two levels (both as a means for settling transaction as well as an excessive consumer of electricity.) Renewables have their issues and nuclear is subject to a Russian dominance of uranium. There are plenty of challenges detailed in this book without much in the way of easy solutions. (Would heading the author's suggestion to hoard goal really work?)
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