Why are Western politicians so corrupt regarding foreign policy?

[Loki]

They are all corrupt, the little countries being fucked by the US included. They all have their own corrupt power structures in the territories they control. They just can't project power very far. If they could, I'm sure they would, which would lead to the situation described below.

I don't think a multipolar world is much better than what we have now. The notion of multiple powers balancing each other into peace and stability sounds great, but in practice the results aren't that much better. During the bipolar Cold War era, the two sides tore several countries apart, probably costing several million lives. The only thing they didn't do is take each other on directly - much. They don't give a damn how many innocents get caught up in their competition. It's just acceptable collateral damage.

You can't make that comparison, because the dynamics have changed. Communism has collapsed in Russia, and there is no huge ideological difference anymore.

[Graham]

Many nations are corrupt, some are better at hiding it than others.

[N1019]

You can't make that comparison, because the dynamics have changed. Communism has collapsed in Russia, and there is no huge ideological difference anymore.

I can't make what comparison?

The ideological differences between competing powers in the end don't count for that much because in the end power and interests, trump ideology. It doesn't matter whether one side is communist and the other is capitalist, or if they are both capitalist or both communist, etc. They will still try to spread influence across the world by supporting governments that are favourable to their interests, if they have the power to do so, and beat the other side(s). So the communist vs capitalist conflicts might not happen anymore, yet the power struggles will continue.

A few decades before the Cold War, the British and German Empires fought one of the biggest wars ever despite not having huge ideological differences, and then they did it again soon afterwards with Germany under "national socialism", but what did the Marxist-Leninist communists do? They sided with capitalist Britain. During the Cold War we also saw minor conflict between the USSR and PRC that could have become something much bigger.

This ideology stuff is just a superficial overlay. In reality, it's all about power and interests, not ideology.