Trump’s New World Disorder

On January 3, American Chinook aircraft and Apache gunship escorts attacked military sites across Venezuela, and a few hours later, the US President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife had been “captured” and flown out of their country to the USA. Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and capture of its president mark the end of the West as we know it, warned the world affairs editor Sam Kiley of The Independent. By late Monday, topics linked to Trump’s capture of Maduro had received more than 650 million impressions on Weibo, China’s X-like social media platform, with many users suggesting it could offer a template for Beijing’s own potential military takeover of Taiwan. If the US can snatch a leader in its backyard, many ask, why can’t China do the same? Netizens asked, reports CNN.

Trump’s claim to be knocking over a ‘narco-terrorist state’ that has exported vast quantities of opiates to the US, and killed hundreds of thousands of its citizens, is not true, as opiates get into the US from Mexico, not Venezuela. Though the US UN ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, defended the attack as a legitimate “law enforcement” action to execute long-standing criminal indictments against an “illegitimate” leader, not an act of war, the US has faced widespread condemnation for a “crime of aggression” in Venezuela at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday. Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Spain were among the countries that denounced Donald Trump’s decision to launch deadly strikes on Venezuela and snatch its President and his wife. Even the post-Bretton Woods elites of Europe agree that a gruesome wound has been inflicted on the international rules-based order, which has, apparently, thus far helped to ensure global sanity and accountability in the matter of national wrongdoings. French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he "neither supported nor approved" the US military operation to grab Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Trump wants to rule the Western Hemisphere

The Venezuela operation that saw U.S. forces capture Maduro last week has “galvanised” the administration’s focus on the western hemisphere. Trump doubled down on his proposed plans for the Arctic nation- Greenland, declaring on Tuesday that “we need Greenland from a national security situation.” To accomplish this goal, the White House now says, could include using the U.S. military, according to Fortune.

Analysts observe that Trump is drawing on 19th-century history to justify a far more assertive, 21st-century projection of power. “The United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”, says the US National Security Strategy, prepared by the Trump Administration. President James Monroe’s 1823 annual message to Congress contained the Monroe Doctrine, which warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. The US, in turn, would avoid involvement in the European war, it promised. Trump has rebranded the 'Monroe Doctrine' to "Donroe Doctrine" to justify his outrageous colonial ambitions in the name of 'Making America Great Again (MAGA). If Monroe sought to keep foreign powers out of America, Trump appears intent on reshaping the entire hemisphere around American dominance.

Despite global backlash, the White House insisted on Tuesday it was "discussing options for acquiring Greenland". President Trump has made it well known that “acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it's vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region”, the Trump administration said in a statement. Reacting to this, leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain had joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty. “Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

It is feared that should the United States use military force to annex Greenland, the essence of Article 5 and collective defence within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) would lose its meaning. The Alliance is based on the principles of the United Nations Charter, which states that international disputes should be settled through peaceful means and that parties in their international relations should refrain from the threat or use of force that is inconsistent with the Charter. Since its inception in 1949, Denmark has been a member of NATO and in Afghanistan; Denmark fought alongside the United States in the tougher mission areas and suffered the most casualties in relation to its population of all NATO allies, apart from the United States.

The BBC reported on January 8 that US President Donald Trump had been discussing "a range of options" to acquire Greenland, including the use of the military. The White House told the BBC that acquiring Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of fellow Nato member Denmark, was a "national security priority". The statement came hours after European leaders issued a joint statement rallying behind Denmark. Trump repeated that the US "needed" Greenland for security reasons over the weekend, prompting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to warn that any attack by the US would spell the end of NATO.

Experts say Greenland's location makes it key for American ambitions to have sovereign hemispheric domination, with its extensive rare earth and oil deposits a bonus. An alternative to a military option is a purchase agreement. Purchasing territory was common back in 19th-century America, which is very dear to President Trump. American acquisitions included the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, some of what's now Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico, Florida and the Philippines from Spain, the Virgin Islands from Denmark and Alaska from Russia in 1867. The US even sought to purchase Greenland in 1946 during the Cold War, but was knocked back.

Trump officials have repeatedly pointed to Greenland’s mineral wealth as justification for U.S. control. The island is estimated to hold 36-42 million metric tons of rare earth oxides—potentially the world’s second-largest reserve after China. With the global rare earth elements market projected to reach USD 7.6 billion in 2026, and China controlling 69 per cent of production, securing alternative sources seems like a strategically sound idea. Experts estimate of “hundreds of billions of dollars” to acquire and support Greenland—costs stemming from replacing Denmark’s annual USD 600 million subsidy to the nation, massive infrastructure investments, and replicating the safety net Greenlanders currently enjoy. USA –a highly indebted country with over USD 38 trillion in debt, may find it difficult to allocate an astronomical fund to acquire Greenland.

The USA has realised that the hegemony of the petrodollar is over. China has already announced a massive solar energy program –the Manhattan Project of energy. China’s 1km-wide solar array in space is expected to collect as much energy in a year as the total amount of oil that can be extracted from the Earth. In addition to oil, Venezuela has huge deposits of rare-earth minerals, which the USA badly needs to compete with China.

Dividing the globe as per the Treaty of Tordesillas

The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas neatly divided the "New World" into land, resources, and people claimed by Spain and Portugal- the two superpowers of the 15th century. The treaty worked out well for the Spanish and Portuguese empires, but less so for the 50 million people already living in established communities in the Americas. In 1493, after reports of Columbus’s discoveries had reached them, the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella enlisted papal support for their claims to the New World in order to inhibit the Portuguese and other possible rival claimants. To accommodate them, the Spanish-born pope Alexander VI issued bulls setting up a line of demarcation from pole to pole 100 leagues (about 320 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain was given exclusive rights to all newly discovered and undiscovered lands in the region west of the line. Portuguese expeditions were to keep to the east of the line. Neither power was to occupy any territory already in the hands of a Christian ruler. Thus, the world was divided between two superpowers of that era.

With the discovery of new sea routes across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, the Europeans began to dominate sea trades and emerged as the dominant economies of the world- surpassing the traditional economies of China India Persia of the Old World, which controlled their supply chain using a huge network of land routes across the Afro-Eurasian region stretching from East Asia to Africa.. After the discovery of the New World, the historic Silk Route gradually lost its importance. These huge networks of historical trade routes are now revived with the help of modern transport like railways. China’s New Silk Road –the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to develop a sustainable and resilient global supply chain. More than 150 countries have already joined BRI. China has emerged as a major challenger to the US hegemony in the global economy.

It appears, the US President now wants to restrict USA’s domain of influence only to the western hemisphere -the half that lies west of the prime meridian (at which longitude is defined to be 0°) which primarily includes North and South America, a few small African nations, the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the majority of the Atlantic Ocean. This is the so-called ‘new world’ that was granted to Spain in 1494 by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Significantly, President Donald Trump on Wednesday (January 7, 2026) signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organisations, agencies, and commissions, including the UN's population agency and the UN treaty that establishes international climate negotiations.

The eastern hemisphere (the half that lies east of the prime meridian) includes most of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. China, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, France, South Africa, and Iran are a few major economies of this hemisphere where China leads, both in terms of economic and military power.

China has positioned itself as a prominent alternative to US-led global governance leadership by promoting new global frameworks, such as the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Global Civilisation Initiative, and Global Governance Initiative. In May 2025, China quietly inaugurated the International Organisation for Mediation (IoM), marking what may become a significant shift in global dispute resolution. According to China’s foreign minister, the IoM will serve as a non-adversarial alternative to traditional judicial bodies such as the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Its mandate encompasses three main categories: mediation between sovereign states, disputes between states and foreign investors, and international commercial conflicts. An alternative global governance system is emerging in the eastern hemisphere.