What would happen if every state acted like Donald Trump’s America? | Kenneth Roth

In a might-makes-right world, US allies, not to mention the emerging powers of the global south, would begin to hedge their bets in dangerous ways

What is wrong with resurrecting the prerogative of major powers to claim a sphere of influence in which they dictate and others must follow? That idea informs the Donroe Doctrine" behind the US invasion of Venezuela to seize Nicolas Maduro. Donald Trump seems to believe that, as the world's strongest military power, the United States should be allowed to invade other countries at will. Trump's homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, says the real world" is governed by strength", by power", so we should get used to it.

There is a beguiling simplicity to this abandonment of the norms long designed to govern the behavior of states big and small. China has touted it as the reality that its Asian neighbors must live with. Russia, a third-tier power by comparison but still a nuclear-armed regional heavyweight, has periodically treated the boundaries of post-Soviet states as mere suggestions. But do we really want to return to the law of the jungle in which the guy with the biggest stick calls the shots?