Normal and necessary are different.

I am quite familiar with realpolitik, the American post-war perspective and how the idea of international cooperation was undercut and destroyed by our national bourgeoisie. The UN system was put in place for America to exert its post-war dominance. China is a complicated nation. It is constructing a parallel system to the IMF/World Bank that under-girds US hegemony. It also controls a huge fraction of world manufacturing due to the laziness and greed of the business community. However, because it is not a pure capitalist country, it doesn't have the same imperial market imperatives that western countries certainly have.

If we don't try to build a better future, we will realpolitik ourselves into a dystopian one.

Also, nations are fake creations of the elites. The working class is international in scope and we have no quarrel with one another.

Realpolitik means that we acknowledge that great power wars aren't an option while MAD exists - and that MAD isn't going anywhere for 100 years or more. That means that soft/economic power is far more important than hard power.

Anti-ICBM tech sucks balls and it only gets worse with new weapons like nuclear cruise missiles.