Donald Trump wants to revive American imperialism. For weeks, the president-elect has threatened to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal, possibly by military force. And he promised supporters that he would pressure Canada, through economic warfare, to become the 51st US state. Trump’s repeated threats to undermine borders and use force have alarmed US allies, who are worried that, even if he’s not serious, the incoming president is eager to disregard decades-old norms about respecting territorial integrity and deploying military power.
Early in Trump’s first term in office, it became clear that he has contempt for international law and the rules-based order put in place after the end of the second world war to contain conflict between world powers. But this time, Trump is motivated not just by his disdain for global institutions and norms – or even the “madman theory” of foreign policy, where a president will try to appear unpredictable, or irrational, as a negotiating tactic to throw adversaries off balance.
