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Attacks on the Global Liberal Multilateral Order: Trump and the Return of 19th-Century Imperialism [1]
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Date: 2025-01-08
The old liberal world order that Trump seems determined to tear apart is not perfect. It has its share of problems, including duplicity, countless atrocities, and injustices. However, it promotes cooperation and the rule that strong countries should not attack or take over smaller ones. Are we now reverting to a doctrine of conquest? Where might make right and the strong take from the weak?
Our self-anointed “Prince of Peace,” (during the election campaign), President-elect Donald Trump, is not ruling out military force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal under the pretense of national security reasons. He even called the Canadian Prime Minister a “governor,” considered Canada a fifty-first U.S. state, and suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Are we going back to the 19th-century era of imperialism? Wouldn't this license any strong state to take over its weak neighbors? Sadly, the world is moving in dangerous and uncertain times.
He bragged that Turkey’s Erdoğan is his friend and attributed the Turkish-Kurdish conflict to ancient enmities between the two people, not because the Turks are stronger, and they want to eradicate the weak Syrian Kurds. Unfortunately, this has been the same erroneous way our State Department has seen the Greco-Turkish conflict over Cyprus and the Aegean Sea for decades. Not that a humongous Turkey wants to impose its will on smaller Greece and tiny Cyprus.
Claiming ethnic hate has been an easy excuse for our government to overlook acts of aggression or pretend to stay neutral. Selling weapons and trading with the Turks is a lucrative business, making it hard to give up for the sake of justice and international law.
Meanwhile, another American ally, Israel, has been advised by a governmental committee that they better start preparing for a war with Turkey.
During a December 22 speech in Mardin, Turkey, a crowd of young people celebrating the capture of Damascus chanted, “Mr. President, take us to Jerusalem.” Instead of rebuking their inappropriate demand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan advised them, “Patience brings victory.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcYr9H00m-0
Leonard Grunstein wrote that Erdoğan has repeatedly implied since 2020 that Jerusalem rightfully belongs to Turkey to avoid misunderstanding the intent behind this exchange. The very next day, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party and Erdoğan’s political ally, said that Turkey’s primary goal is to take back Jerusalem. This matches Erdoğan’s growing focus on neo-Ottoman conquest. So do Turkey’s planned air and naval military exercises called “Blue Homeland 2025” between January 7 and 16 in portions of the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Black Sea.
Erdoğan’s statement on December 18, 2024, is self-explanatory: “Turkey is much bigger than Turkey. As a nation, we cannot limit our horizon to 782,000 square kilometers [...] Turkey as a nation cannot escape or hide from this destiny […] Those who ask, ‘What is Turkey doing in Libya, Syria, and Somalia?’ may not be able to conceive this mission and vision.”
What is more? Turkey opposes Cyprus’s wish to join NATO. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides announced Cyprus’s intentions to join the alliance after meeting with President Joe Biden in October 2024. Cyprus is a member of the European Union and contributes significantly to Western humanitarian efforts in Gaza and the war in Ukraine.
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