At the United Nations General Assembly, Vietnam's top leader is preparing to speak on behalf of a quiet but growing anxiety shared by nations that are neither superpowers nor small states — countries with real weight in the world, yet vulnerable to the gravitational forces of great-power rivalry. The address, delivered as geopolitical friction intensifies across multiple regions, is less a diplomatic protest than a philosophical plea: that a world organized around competition between giants leaves little room for the sovereignty of those caught in between. Vietnam's voice at the podium is a re