Donald Trump has laid bare the myth of the west's rules-based order

The president's crude 'might is right' language has broken the code of hypocrisy that allowed old habits of empire to continue

- Kenan Malik

A cartoon from 1901 depicting tensions over Latin America.

(Fotosearch/Getty Images)

Yes, Donald Trump's kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, and his demand for Greenland are helping reset international norms. And, yes, any coercive occupation of Greenland would mean, in the words of the Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, that "everything stops, including NATO". Yet Trump's actions are not as "unprecedented" as many have suggested. Rather, the context has changed, transforming America's relationship to both the western alliance and the "rules-based order".

The shifting relationship between America and Europe, and the wider shape of modern geopolitics, can be traced historically through three broad periods. The first, from the creation of the American republic to the end of the 19th century, was riven by conflict both between European powers and between those powers and America.

Much of the tension developed from expanding empires. The "Monroe Doctrine", widely discussed over the past week, promulgated by US president James Monroe in 1823, was not simply a declaration that the "western hemisphere" was America's sphere of influence, but also a warning that "the American continents... are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers".

In 1898, the British prime minister, Lord Salisbury, warned that as the major powers built their empires, so "the seeds and causes of conflict among civilized nations will speedily appear". He was speaking just as European nations and America were engaged in a frenzy of land-grabbing from Africa to the Pacific. Less than 20 years later, Europe exploded into war.