On 24 September last year, I wrote here about a new project for the world order. I interpreted the events surrounding Donald Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom as a “manifestation of the creation, or reconstruction, of a project for an alliance of maritime powers in response to the threat posed by the emerging Beijing–Moscow–Tehran axis, supported by Pyongyang.” I went on to write: “The natural ally of the United States should be the European Union, but the problem is that it does not want to be one. The EU prefers to position itself as a competitor to the United States, and its dangerous game with Moscow has led to the outbreak of the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War.”
The actions of U.S. forces in Venezuela are an obvious act of self-defense by a great power subjected to a hybrid attack. The flooding of the American market with hard drugs, organized in part by the dictator Nicolás Maduro, arrested in early January, causes the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans every year – roughly the same number who were dying annually during the Second World War. In addition, Venezuela has been a major driver of illegal immigration to the United States.
What is visible in Trump’s actions above all is a long-term policy. In the concept of Washington’s dominance over the Western Hemisphere, defined in 1823 by President Monroe, Venezuela constitutes an extremely important element. This is determined by its location, size, and natural resources. But Trump is not implementing the Monroe Doctrine alone. Perhaps his actions are intended to lull the resistance of isolationists, who treat this concept as a form of “expanded isolation.”
President Donald Trump is rebuilding the power of the American empire, breaking with the canons followed by his predecessors, who sought to replace Pax Americana with the imposition of liberal-left governance. This ended in a series of local wars, mass migration to Europe and the United States, and a weakening of Washington in the face of Russia and China. Trump, where he can, of course, seeks to enforce peace, but above all, he is building the instruments to restore U.S. control over the world. One may be outraged by the arbitrariness of these decisions, but the clear alternative is co-governance with the criminal leaders of Russia and communist China. For Poles, the choice is fairly obvious. We need American superiority so that Moscow does not dominate this part of Europe in some shady partnership with Berlin.
The instruments of American supremacy are: securing the immediate environment of the United States – Venezuela, Greenland, Cuba; control over a significant portion of energy sources – Venezuela, Iran, the Arctic; control of sea and air routes – the U.S. Army; economic and technological growth; and the opening of markets, above all the European one, to products and services from the United States. In this last respect, Poland, together with Ukraine, may be key.
The problem is that the most important skirmisher within the European Union, organizing resistance against the United States, is the Polish prime minister. The fact that Poles elected a pro-American president shows Washington that it has a partner in our nation. The problem is that the current prime minister was helped into office by Trump’s American predecessors. Hence, Donald Tusk’s tremendous fear that Washington might “throw the switch.” For now, it is merely ignoring him. But the waiting is clearly fraying Tusk’s nerves.