Indeed President Trump 2.0 now looks hell bent to reclaim its unparalleled unipolar hegemony that America enjoyed after the demise of the USSR during closing years of 1980s. A question arises here as to whether or not America is interested in upholding the liberal-progressive values and democratic traditions and also security of the West including the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) alliance despite silently acknowledging the massive power build-up by President Putin and President Xi-Jinping. While Russian aggression over Ukraine has gravely endangered the peace and security of not only the Anglo-European World but that of the entire world, Chinese militarist and imperialist expansions continuing for many past decades have endangered the same peace and security of the entire Indo-Pacific region and beyond.
Why Trump expects today from the considerably strong Moscow and Beijing – individually and their combined strength – both to help-facilitate the targeted American ascendance towards the lone global hegemony? Is Putin or Xi Jinping not wishing to accomplish the same supreme position in the world? Then is it feasible for America to ignore the economic or security concerns of Europe by confining to its exclusive national interests? In fact, it may prove to be a disaster if Trump 2.0 undermines the overall collective power including soft power of the West wherein Anglo-American spirit of liberalism and democracy and their collective vision regarding global peace and security, political stability, socio-economic progress are at stake.
While curious penchant for imperialist policies of yesteryears still attracts President Trump 2.0 to pursue consolidating its unchallenged global hegemony in the past, suffering cracks due to Russian and Chinese ascendance in international affairs both individually and collectively and further in association with like-minded autocratic regimes of North Korea, Hungary and Islamic hardliners like Iran, Lebanon and Yemen etc.. Evidently, the cumulative effect of aforesaid imperialist assertions by America may perhaps hurt the hitherto maintained Anglo-American Unity and the NATO alliance led by Washington itself to consolidate democracy throughout the world in general and the distinct liberal-democratic order of Europe in particular. The NATO alliance was launched in 1949 by the US, Canada, and several Western European nations. One of the objectives of this grand alliance was to promote democratic values, besides protecting the security and freedom of its members through political and military means. Fortunately America, suffering least from the onslaughts of two world wars, swiftly turned into playing the much-desired dominant role of the Super Power in the post-World War II cold war years, enjoying immense economic and military power, keeping nuclear bomb as well.
Re-enacting its past journey towards global ascendance, the Trump 2.0 administration in its bid to obtain the much-awaited cessation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine has gravely undermined the security and economic prospects of the Anglo-European world, particularly against the backdrop of the US inclining towards Russia and China. It can be safely deduced that the US is even ready to abandon Europe and its security concerns as that now reflects in its evolving foreign policy modifications.
What Trump 2.0 and associates have in mind is nothing short of restructuring modern capitalism that emerged out of the 1929 global economic crisis and remaking the post-war international system led by the US. Thus, there is a decline of the West as there no longer looks a liberal “West” in terms that the world has been accustomed to using the shining label during the post-war decades. Such shift in Trump’s administration may hurt the unity and strength the West and the NATO as well due to possible mutual bickering among alliance partners. This is why, the foreign policy and security arrangements under Trump 2.0, witnesses a dramatic change away from the hitherto upheld liberal-progressive direction, thus overturning the ideological and strategic foundations of the American state and instead reincarnating imperialism in newer forms especially economic as trade wars, ideological as violation of human rights and even cultural one meaning thereby to controlling the minds of people at large. Indeed, forcible slapping of sanctions on many nation-states, challenging the US’ economic supremacy and using tariffs as a weapon, Trump 2.0 is becoming vindictive to push the world towards the US’ dominated unipolar order.
In this scenario, President Trump’s attempt to occupy Gaza and mineral resources in Ukraine accompanied by the proposed increased Tariffs over states in Europe and beyond, have unnerved the European community, apart from India and other states regarding fair-trade practices and international commercial activities among themselves. The revival of hegemonic capitalism and supremacy of all-encompassing American national interests threatens the very core of liberal and democratic international norms, thereby retracing the unipolar world order once again, besides highly inhuman and barbaric treatment given to the Indian immigrants signals President Trump 2.0’s arrogance against India. And that reminds us about the American colonial outlook vis-à-vis New Delhi as junior partner in South Asia, perhaps to counter-balance both China and Pakistan against India despite overtly proclaiming to the contrary.
Thus the current international scenario exhorts the global community to unite against speedy erosion of the cardinal values of the liberal, progressive and democratic international order that largely characterized the West’s Anglo-American international system with consolidating League of Nations and subsequently the United Nations after the end of the Ist and IInd World War respectively and their glorious Charters highlighting the collective voice of world peace resembling through the universal principle of “sovereign equality of nation-states.” This glorious canon itself emerged out of the Peace Treaty of Westphalia, 1948, thereby restraining balkanization of Europe and establishing a strong foundation of lasting peace in the Europe. Also they must explore a pro-people alternative that challenges exploitative capitalism in different forms and the US led passion for brute imperialism by down- sliding and even disowning the interests of West and NATO, thus leading to the unipolar world order again.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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