よろしくお願いします。

https://www.unz.com/pcockburn/
このブログの文章中に以下の段落があります。

It is surely disastrous historical bad luck that this unprecedented
global threat is occurring just as independent nation states are
re-emerging, in so far as they ever disappeared, as the essential
players on the international stage at the expense of international institutions: the UN and EU were losing influence pre-epidemic and
have been marginalised since in the last six months. Nation states
are not only very much back in business, but they are increasingly
run by far-right nativist populist leaders, of whom Trump is only
one of the more crazed examples. Most of these are proving highly
incompetent in dealing with the pandemic and none are likely to
favour international cooperation.

ここの
It is surely disastrous historical bad luck that this unprecedented
global threat is occurring just as independent nation states are
re-emerging, in so far as they ever disappeared, as the essential
players on the international stage at the expense of international institutions
の訳をお願いします。
（質問の核心は in so far as they ever disappeared の部分ですが）