Many analyses point to Trump’s behavior on the world stage – bullying and racketeering more reminiscent of a mobster than a statesman – as a personal character flaw. But while this behavior was shocking in its crudeness, Trump marks the culmination of a decades-long trend that shifted US foreign policy from a regime of “legitimate protection” in the mid-20th century to a “protection racket” by the turn of the 21st century. Although the temperaments of successive presidents have mattered, the problems faced by the US and its international role are not attributable to personalities, but are rather fundamentally structural, in large part stemming from the contradictions of the country’s attempts to cling to preeminence before a changing global power distribution. The inability of successive US administrations – Trump and Biden included – to break with the mindset of US primacy has resulted in a “domination without hegemony,” in which the United States plays an increasingly dysfunctional role. This dynamic has plunged the world into a period of systemic chaos analogous to the first half of the 20th century.
Trump; Biden; Hegemony; War; US Foreign Policy; Crisis