Disordered

Since the end of World War II, nations have worked hard to build a rulesand values-based global order presided over by multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

- ALEX MAGNO

That goal of an ordered world is now in serious jeopardy.The UN has now become a toothless forum, held hostage by the major postwar powers through their veto powers over any decision taken by the Security Council. The global trading regime has been repeatedly violated by unilateral US actions. Washington’s attack against Venezuela brazenly violates all sovereignty guarantees the postwar global order has been trying to provide.

The recent turn of events in global politics is more than the sum of Donald Trump’s character flaws. The world’s strongest military power has removed all guardrails to ensure the responsible exercise of that power. This is the culmination of many years of American unilateralism, traceable to as early as the Vietnam War.

When the US intervened in Vietnam, American leaders tried hard to convince the world about its “domino theory” — that one country succumbing to communism will cause other countries to subsequently fall. After the Cold War ended, this was a proposition difficult to sell to the rest of the world.

When the US invaded Afghanistan, Washington told us this was necessary to protect the global order from the rise of terrorism. America did not win that war.

When the US launched its invasion of Iraq, we were told this was necessary to arrest the rise of rogue states that threatened global stability. Many nations bought into this justification, supporting a Coalition of the Willing to bring down a tyrant and establish democracy in a land that was never familiar with it.