Gangster Imperialism

There is a method behind the apparent madness of US President Donald Trump's transactional, spheres-of-influence approach to geopolitics and the global economy.

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Nowhere has this logic been clearer than in his administration's illegal abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and its ongoing efforts to secure control of the country's oil reserves by installing a client regime.At the core of Trump’s revival of the Monroe Doctrine — or the “Don-roe Doctrine,” as he has rebranded it — lies the belief that the United States can act with impunity within its self-defined “backyard,” and that other major powers, particularly China, can do the same in theirs. At the same time, the US reserves the right to advance its strategic interests wherever it sees fit, including Greenland.

This approach — aptly described by Indian economist Prabhat Patnaik as “gangster imperialism” — harks back to capitalism’s colonial roots, when overt hierarchies among peoples and polities were based on relative power.

Setting aside the profound moral and legal issues raised by Trump's strategy, can it actually work? Can carving up the world among major powers deliver a more stable and dynamic capitalism at a time when the global economy appears increasingly volatile and rudderless?

If history is any guide, the answer is no. Over the past two centuries, capitalism has oscillated between periods of intense conflict among competing states and phases in which a single dominant superpower acted as both rule maker and enforcer. In the 19th century, that role was played by the United Kingdom, which built a colonial empire larger than those of its European rivals. Since the mid-20th century, the US has largely occupied this position.