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The Trump Doctrine & The Resurrection of the Age of Empire [1]
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Date: 2025-03-02
Even before there was Friday's Oval Office, there were other signs:
The “Acquisition” of Greenland
Canada (as a 51st state)
Seizing the Panama Canal
These are not jokes; they are signs .
We are not the first in the present moment to cry "SHAME!" at Friday's Oval Office disgrace.
Nor are we the only ones who, recalling the lessons History has to teach us, remind anyone listening that THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT.
We might, however, usefully remember two moments from the History of the American Presidency when the Leader of Our Nation - by his Words and Deeds, in the very midst of a World War - established that he was also, indisputably, the Leader of the Free World.
The more recent example was Franklin Roosevelt who on January 19, 1941 - the day before his inauguration, sent Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill a letter of Hope - at the height of The Blitz, in the desperate days during the Battle of Britain - which included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's now famous lines:
Sail on O Ship of State
Sail on O Union
Strong and Great!
Humanity, with all its Fears,
With all its HOPES of future years,
Is hanging breathless
On thy Fate!
-- Nor, importantly, was it accidental, that it was Wendell Wilkie, the Republican presidential candidate whom FDR had bested less than three months earlier. who , in the most powerful display of bipartisan national unity, personally delivered that message to Churchill.
THAT was what the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD Did.
But it was Not the first historical example.
Twentyfour years earlier, April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson declared before Congress:
"The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted on the tested foundation of political liberty.… We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifice we shall freely make. We are but the Champions of the Rights of Mankind."
Whatever else Wilson may have been (and there is substantial historical evidence that he was far less admirable in other respects as a president and as a human being), in that moment, Woodrow Wilson was the Leader - and even, arguably, the savior - of the Free World.
But perhaps equally significant in that historical moment - though rarely recognized - was the transformation in International Foreign Relations Wilson's words marked. The centuries-old Age of Empires - governed by rival (potentially warring) SPHERES OF INFLUENCE, which the world had been carved into - was coming to an end…
..to be ultimately replaced by an Age of Enduring Mutual Alliances.
It should be acknowledged that America itself was no exception to the impulse toward Empire. From the benevolently intentioned Monroe Doctrine, through the course of Manifest Destiny. and including the expansive "acquisitions" of Hawaii. Puerto Rico, and (for a while, at least) the Philippines, America was no stranger to an Imperial impulse - (no matter how it may have been packaged or disguised).
But in most of these cases America had largely managed to keep itself free of the"Foreign Entanglements" Washington had warned against - and Especially those creations of "SPHERES OF INFLUENCE" carved out by the Great Empires of the Old World.
The rise of those Empires was indeed "Old World," stretching back to the 17th Century and beyond. In some cases, such as the Russian or the Ottoman Empire, they expanded by conquering and absorbing contiguous lands. That worked well enough - until they ran into natural boundaries (oceans for example) or other equally powerful, potentially adversarial, Empires.
The technological rise of sea power provided a means around the dillema posed by Nature. Empires were no longer confined by geographic bounds. The British, the French, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese - each saw immense new possibilities which, if they were possessed of sufficient diplomatic skill (backed, it must be said, by equally sufficient Naval Power), they could expand their Empire many times over.
But the potential of a mutually destructive conflict between competing Empires remained. And indeed such conflicts were common, especially in the 18th century as the British, French, and to a lesser extent, the Dutch and Spanish sought supremacy.
While the Imperial ambitions of the great European Powers may never have disappeared entirely, the 19th century saw the rise of a"real politik" vision of a "new Imperialism" - a kind of 19th century version of"Peaceful Coexistence."
It's important to recognize that the Empires that adhered to this vision - fundamentally Grounded in FEAR - still saw a World Filled With Enemies - both real and potential. And Because they viewed the world around them this way, they created (or attempted to) separate SPHERES OF INFLUENCE to protect themselves while they could safely exploit those lands they could control. A sort of "Gentlemen's Agreement" - reenforced by Europe's Royal families - helped keep it in place.
FEAR is a powerful force in Human affairs, but so is GREED and the lust for POWER. And together they overwhelmed that world order with the outbreak of World War I.
While the"Great War" confirmed the darkest paranoid vision of each of those Empires, it also destroyed many of them and left the others badly weakened
It was to this world Woodrow Wilson spoke. And it was equally to this world he proposed the League of Nations - A very different vision from the World of Empires filled with potential enemies - protected only by its SPHERES OF INFLUENCE. Wilson's proposal was founded on a vision of a world filled, not with likely enemies, but with potential Friends - FRIENDS with whom one could forge lasting bonds - and ALLIANCES.
However, the World was not ready for Wilson's vision - and America even less so. The Senate rejected American membership in the League, and in the years that followed isolationism and "America First" reenforced American suspicions.
Only World War II finally revealed how dangerously illusory SPHERES OF INFLUENCE carved up between potential enemies are (think Germany and The USSR'S dismemberment of Poland - and. ultimately their brutal war with each other), and showed us instead the value of seeing the world as containing potential friends with whom we could forge long term alliances.
NATO, the EU and the UN itself are expressions of this world vision.
Now, eighty years later, Trumpism has risen, as if from the grave of Empires past, to give birth to a new American Imperial Dream. Or rather Nightmare, for Trump, consumed by fear, sees the world like the Old World Empires did: it is a world filled with enemies - real and potential. It is a world where only naive suckers see friends with whom one can build enduring mutual Alliances and lasting Partnerships. It is a world where Trump sees only an international version of the Art of the Deal. A Deal with Putin, with Xi, with Kim - with those who share his world vision, and who stand ready (or at least so Trump believes) to carve up SPHERES OF INFLUENCE for a new world of EMPIRES.
It is a TRUMP DOCTRINE - built upon EMPIRES and SPHERES OF INFLUENCE.
And History tells us that it will meet the same Fate they did.
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