Disorder in the International Order

Ordinarily, the challenge to the international status quo comes from the left, promoting change. There was a time when liberals and Democrats questioned the aristocratic, dynastic and anti-national system restored in the beginning of the 19th century. Later, socialists, and then communists, opposed the bourgeois, oligarchic and imperialist order. In contrast, the elites, whoever they be, tend to defend the established order, which is advantageous to them. Not anymore. Our era is one in which destabilization of the world order occurs from the top down.

While internationalism was the prerogative of the left, the elites supported the states that they ruled in their interest. No more. The upper classes have transformed themselves into supporters of a market-driven internationalism, diminishing states and nations to the status of trappings abandoned to social classes in decline.

Who is the No. 1 disrupter of international stability? Undeniably and plainly speaking, it’s the United States. It is supposed to be the guardian and pillar of the international order, but the top power has relentlessly fomented clashes and conflicts urbi et orbi: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Ukraine, Russia’s western border, Venezuela, Cuba, the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, economic agreements and sanctions”(embargoes, blockades) all to excess. A pyromaniac, the U.S. is trying to light a fire in Lebanon. In Palestine, it throws fuel on the fire that is fanned by its Israeli protégé as Israel occupies territories that don’t belong to it. The U.S. does not care about international law, having gotten rid of its inhibitions in the matter through Israel, a proven outlaw and champion of disregard for legality. Boasting impunity, neither Israel nor the U.S. submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Countries opposing the United States have been cornered in their effort to salvage what can be salvaged of established order, of the law and of the rules of conduct conducive to an international system. Why does the United States seek quarrels with others and invite itself into their houses? How can we explain the dominant global power turned destabilizer of a status quo from which it has benefited and whose stability is defended by the less favored?

A Hegemony with an Uncertain Future

The reason lies in the evolution of recent history. Since the end of World War I, the United States has preached a liberal order conducive to capitalism, and that naturally assures them primacy. If, during World War II, the European imperialists had the happy idea of facilitating the United States’ task by eliminating each other, the Soviet Union emerged as the major obstacle to American aims. In 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union and unipolarity suggested that the whole world would be at America’s disposal. The “end of history” was punctiliously declared and the “American Century” was celebrated with pomp. The United States sponsored globalization and false multilateralism that made it master of the universe. Demonstrations of force at the expense of demonized countries (“rogue states,” “Axis of Evil”) had value as examples meant to persuade the recalcitrant.

But it’s all breaking down after less than a quarter century. First, one can plainly see how ineffective the American military is and how it is unable to win by force. Despite deploying a colossal force, no American war reaches its fixed objectives. Futuristic hardware and insane budgets do not lead to tangible results. Meanwhile, like a phoenix risen from the ashes, Russia is restoring its weakened state and assuming an international role pursuant to its capacity. That’s a bitter surprise for those who had quickly added Russia to the category of new colonies at their disposal. For its part, China is pulling out of the game of globalization designed to benefit the United States. It has the impertinence to succeed too well and refuse to act as a subordinate. Finally, the neoliberal globalism bubble burst in 2008, which gave the United States a strategy it could deploy as a pretext to justify its claim to “leadership.”

Weakening Others

With neoliberal globalization becoming less advantageous to the United States, the world is moving against its hegemony, and internationalism from above is raising resistance. Without available prospects for achieving unity, America’s strategy boils down to doing harm and threatening to reassert its predominance. The U.S. no longer even bothers to sing the praises of an America-centric world. Stripped of any embellishment, this policy is purely negative: act as troublemaker, and sow discord in an international order that eludes the U.S. in order to unbalance both rivals and allies and sidetrack them. This approach makes the U.S. a power which is less certain of its domination, its behavior being muddled and unpredictable. In his cartoonish simplicity, in his blustering posturing, Trump is its perfect representative.