In an Age of Global Influence, the US is the Most Unreliable Partner

The appalling squabble at the Oval Office—what one commentator described as "a premeditated, gangster-like ambush"—with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance hectoring Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in full view of the Press, and then accusing him of being 'disrespectful' and 'ungrateful', has not only put paid to any hopes of an early, US-mediated ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, it has left America's reputation and credibility, globally, in shreds.

- Ajai Sahni

The appalling squabble at the Oval Office—what one commentator described as "a premeditated, gangster-like ambush"—with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance hectoring Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in full view of the Press, and then accusing him of being 'disrespectful' and 'ungrateful', has not only put paid to any hopes of an early, US-mediated ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, it has left America's reputation and credibility, globally, in shreds. Trump has often boasted about his mastery of the 'art of the deal', but if this is a sample, it isn't surprising that he has six corporate bankruptcies to his discredit. The Zelenskyy debacle is a negotiating disaster. Trump had promised an end to the Ukraine war within 24 hours of returning to the White House, but confronted by Zelenskyy on elements of the false narrative Vance was putting forward, simply destroyed all possibilities of a negotiated settlement, humiliating Zelenskyy, openly defending Putin, declaring that the US was simply withdrawing from the role of mediator, and pulling out all support to Ukraine. Hardly an exemplar of the 'art of the deal'.

The Oval Office spat will substantially escalate the process of destroying the architecture of the US-dominated world order, constructed over 80 years since the end of World War II, which has already come under substantial stress from a rising Axis led by China, as well as numerous lesser contenders in an increasingly multipolar world.