Washington – A recent series of assertive moves by former U.S.President Donald Trump, including threats of military intervention in multiple nations and a withdrawal from dozens of international organizations, signals a dramatic shift in American foreign policy. Experts suggest these actions – beginning with developments in Venezuela – represent a departure from decades of U.S. leadership in maintaining a liberal world order and a return to a more nationalistic approach focused on spheres of influence.The unfolding situation is raising concerns among global powers and prompting analysis of a potential reshaping of geopolitical dynamics.
In recent days, former U.S. President Donald Trump has made one thing clear: the operation in Venezuela marked the beginning of a broader campaign to assert American dominance in the Western Hemisphere. Since this weekend, he has threatened military intervention in Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and NATO partner Greenland. Experts view this as a definitive break with the liberal world order that the U.S. itself carefully constructed. This shift in posture has raised concerns about a potential reshaping of global power dynamics.
Trump’s threats align with the latest U.S. national security strategy, which asserts that U.S. leadership in North and South America is not only legitimate but necessary. “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never again be questioned,” Trump said Saturday following the events in Venezuela.
National Interests
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The former president is promoting a world order where the most powerful actors divide the world into spheres of influence, according to Professor of War Studies Frans Osinga. This worldview contrasts sharply with the liberal thinking that has prevailed since World War II. “America itself shaped that international order by establishing institutions like the United Nations, the IMF, and NATO. All those institutions and international law are now being sidelined.”
The U.S. is also withdrawing from numerous international organizations, including 31 affiliated with the United Nations. These organizations focus on cooperation in areas such as climate change, peace, and democracy. According to the White House, these organizations act “in conflict with the national interests of the U.S.”
This new course of action from Trump echoes the strategies of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who have long sought a world order based on spheres of influence. Following a year of increasingly assertive rhetoric, Trump now appears to be putting these strategies into practice. The development underscores growing regional tensions and a potential shift in the global balance of power.
According to analysts, the operation in Venezuela is also linked to the interests China and Russia have cultivated in Latin America in recent years, particularly in Venezuela. China was a major arms supplier and the largest investor in Venezuelan oil, while Russia recently sold air defense systems to the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
‘Hostile Foreign Powers’
Trump’s intervention in the region is clearly intended to eliminate the influence of these other global powers. Without explicitly naming China and Russia, Trump said Saturday: “Under Maduro, Venezuela increasingly offered a haven for hostile foreign powers.”
With Maduro now in U.S. custody, China and Russia have lost an ally in South America. “China will not have been pleased,” said Steve Tsang, a political scientist and director of a leading China institute in London. “Venezuela was an important base for Xi in his efforts to expand influence in Latin America, in the U.S.’s backyard.”
“But Trump has also created chaos within the liberal international order and, in doing so, demonstrated that order is a myth,” Tsang added. “This gives Xi room to promote his own worldview, in which Chinese interests take precedence.”
Russia Embarrassed
Putin has not yet commented on the detention of his longtime friend Maduro, but Russian bloggers have been critical, even of their own government. They criticize the fact that Russian investments in Venezuela, particularly in the form of weapons, could not prevent the Americans from arresting the president in a matter of hours.
It is particularly painful that Russia is attempting to do the same thing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but has not succeeded after four years. “This highlights the ineffectiveness of the Russian military, the political system, and the regime,” said Aleksandr Astrov, a Russian political scientist researching the shifting world order in Vienna.
According to Astrov, Putin has fallen into his own trap. “For years, he has said, ‘Forget all those values. The world is governed by violence and military might.’ But now it turns out that he lacks that very power to command respect.”
‘Deeply Tragic’
Professor Osinga calls it “deeply tragic” that the world is “returning to an era we thought we had left behind.” “America is actively dismantling the foundations on which it based its power position. All U.S. presidents up to Trump believed in the importance of alliances, international organizations, and international law. That is all being abandoned under Trump.”
