Effectiveness does not mean only that you can compete efficiently. More important, you must force your rivals to engage in a conflict that you know that you can win. Ability and luck may sometimes help you in contests that you have not chosen. Effectiveness, however, means that you choose where and how to fight. If one does not correctly perceive the true character of the contests, its weaknesses, and the idiosyncrasies of his rivals, one often loses despite his technological and military might, just as one might win although he lacks military superiority but has defined the contest and the rules of engagement.
Effectiveness means dominance.
For example, dominant countries convert weak and less developed countries to colonies without using traditional imperialist methods. Instead of occupying areas with force, as in the past, they grant them relative freedom, and, thus, they rob them of true independence. The dominant powers degrade their opponents to the role of a follower, or customer, because they have defined the political rules of engagement. In the global economy of the future, only those will survive who establish their military technological, and economic independence. The act of imitating others is obviously dangerous.