Panama isn't the only US ally Trump has rattled

America's president-elect seems bent on an expansive approach to its 'manifest destiny' but overreach could unsettle Pax Americana. Neutral India, thankfully, needn't worry much

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President-elect Donald Trump appears keen to expand on the long-standing American belief in the United States' "manifest destiny" to dominate its part of the world. His utterances on buying up Greenland, enrolling Canada as a state and forcibly taking over the Panama Canal all suggest that the US guiding principle under Trump would be 'Might is Right.' This might work in the face of a few small nation-states in no position to resist, but would rile bigger powers and also weaken the alliances that have held Pax Americana in place under Washington's watch. It is not just economic and military might that underpins US leadership, but also its moral suasion, as articulated by its diplomacy and cultural advocacy. To abandon that, as Trump seems disposed to do once he takes office on 20 January, would be to unravel the power structures that uphold the world order and open up at least a brief phase of instability.