Washington's measured approach to the Venezuelan oil tanker case reveals deeper structural constraints in modern power projection. Full enforcement would demonstrate the practical limits of U.S. leverage in an increasingly multipolar world—a reality that won't escape the strategic calculus of major powers. The gap between stated policy intentions and actual operational capacity tells a story Beijing and Moscow are already reading. When shock-and-awe tactics against smaller players expose this asymmetry, it reshapes how rival powers calibrate their own risk assessments and market strategies.