Precisely. The USA is a global superpower and is capable of creating a situation where it would be rational for countries like Russia and China to abide by international law. But it needs to follow it's own rules to do that.

It amazes me how hostile people are to this. There seems to be this idea that peace achieved by coordinating rational self interest is somehow illegitimate and that unless Russia and China are to willing to unilaterally compromise themselves in pursuit of peace as a moral goal (which will never happen) we should just accept inevitable war.

No doubt the Chinese etc have a similar mentality but unlike China the USA is actually capable of creating a rational peace due to its massive power advantage.