US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, in Palm Beach, Florida, November 14, 2024
PUNDITS are busy sifting US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominations for key roles in his administration for signs as to how he will approach world politics, dividing his picks into “America first” hawks and neocon uber-hawks.
They might be better looking at the factors driving US foreign policy, which turn first of all into the weakening power of US imperialism and its efforts to maintain the global hegemony it secured at the end of the cold war.
One Achilles heel is the position of the dollar as effectively the world’s reserve currency. It sits alongside the strength of the US’s hypertrophied military as one of the two pillars of US global dominance.
The US president’s adventurism in Iran began as a display of overwhelming force but has swiftly become a lesson in over-reach, says ANDREW MURRAY
As the dollar falters and US power turns predatory, Britain and Europe must abandon transatlantic illusions and build a collectivist alternative before the system implodes, writes ALAN SIMPSON
FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ says the US’s bullying conduct in what it considers its backyard is a bid to reassert imperial primacy over a rising China — but it faces huge resistance