The advent of a second Donald Trump administration has got the panties of all those defenders of the Western liberal order in a bunch. While what Trump actually intends to do remains a mystery, it is without a doubt that the world is in for a wild ride. But can something be created in these next four years which is genuinely positive, and capable of replacing the evils of the prevailing post-Bretton Woods world order with a system which actually resolves the fundamental problems in the world?
The final meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group under the tenure of the Biden Administration was held in Germany on Jan. 9. The bluster was loud, with another $500 million in weapons for Ukraine announced by the U.S., along with pledges to stand by Ukraine “for as long as it takes” from every participant. The theme of the meeting was “future force development through 2027,” and focused on other NATO members taking up responsibilities for the various domains of support for Ukraine over the next three years.
However, Trump’s comments on Ukraine don’t bode well for the Ramstein group’s carefully crafted plans. Nor do they indicate a smooth continuity for the “rules-based order” more generally if Trump rejects the policy of “endless wars,” and instead embarks on a path of actually conversing with world leaders in place of lecturing them—as Trump’s Ukraine envoy just suggested he would. The President-elect’s nominations of Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel—both individuals who are outside the permanent bureaucracy’s world of well-dressed script-readers—would further solidify this. The same could be said for his rejection of green environmentalist policies, which have been so destructive for Western economies—as exemplified in the recent California fires.
But “America First” is a lot different from “Humanity First,” or from a “community of principle” among sovereign nation-states in defense against empire, as America’s John Quincy Adams emphasized. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is now finishing up his visit to four nations in Africa, a Chinese tradition of beginning each year with a substantial visit to the African continent to underscore the importance China places there. Many African nations have themselves become leading opponents of modern imperialism and the policy of endless war, and have emerged as mature voices to stop the war in Ukraine. Similarly, many in Africa are opposing deadly renewable energy policies, with some labeling them as “carbon colonialism.”
Instead of working to “contain” China (or Russia, for that matter), will Trump’s U.S. instead work alongside China to make African countries into modern industrial powers? Such a policy would not only reflect a healthier outlook than simply “America First,” but it would be the only actual way to solve the much-touted migrant crisis. The same could be asked of Ibero-America, where China’s recent investments into new-BRICS-member Bolivia’s Mutún steel plant and Peru’s Chancay Port offer a preview into the types of transformative economic projects that are possible.
And what of Gaza, and the rest of Palestine, where radical Israelis are now pushing for a new front to be opened up in the West Bank? Here more than anywhere else is the moral bankruptcy of the Western liberal order evident for the world to see. A place where hospital directors are labeled as “terrorists,” and abducted into torture camps; and where fuel is restricted from the few still-functioning hospitals, guaranteeing the deaths of newborns and infants in incubators and all those still remaining alive inside. Can this horrific expression of the failure of the Western leadership become a driver for a new, more humane system in the world?
These and other questions are the unavoidable reality coming home to roost, whether Trump wants to accept it or not. It’s for this reason that a new security and development architecture must be put on the table and organized for, as the only alternative to today’s collapsing neoliberal order. The U.S. Presidency is an institution to be shaped, not worshipped. Therefore, now is the most important time to be active and assertive of the solutions that the world is in desperate need of, to shape the incoming administration.
