Nwabueze Akabogu
The global influence of the United States of America as the undisputed leader of the free world and champion of democracy seem to be diminishing at an alarming rate since Donald Trump’s Presidency about three years ago. The world has never been so unsafe as the possibility of a nuclear warfare with its catastrophic consequences to mankind appears to be on the horizon occasioned by the extremely bizarre and unpredictable President Trump’s foreign policies.
Since the inception of Trump’s Presidency, the world had progressively and dangerously been drifting towards major conflagration of unimaginable proportion as a result of his rather naïve perception of America’s role in global politics. President Trump had inexplicably abandoned the US leadership roles in virtually all the international organizations that were put together to safeguard world peace and concord among nations. President Trump also had virtually severed US relationships and her obligations to certain global organizations that play major and critical roles towards world peace such as, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) the G7, the Iran’s nuclear treaty which the US was a major signatory, the Paris climate change Accord among others. The list is endless and Trump had equally abandoned U.S traditional allies such as the UK, France, Germany, Canada etc.
The obvious leadership vacuum caused by the seeming US abdication of her global leadership role had inevitably prompted the emergence of other major global nuclear powers such as Russia, China, Iran and even North Korea that had recently became a great threat not only to her immediate neighbours within the Korean peninsula but also to the US herself as a result of her nuclear capability. North Korea had carried out series of tests of her nuclear war heads in the Korean peninsula and beyond which her neighbours such as South Korea and Japan had considered as highly provocative. North Korea’s strong man, Kim Jong Un had boasted that his country had the nuclear capability to strike the US cities including Washington D.C in a matter of minutes and this obvious threat had compelled Donald Trump to hold emergency Summit meetings with the North Korean leader whom he once referred to as “ a little rocket man” The first summit was held in the South East Asian country of Singapore and the second was recently held in the Vietnamese city of Hanol without any meaningful success or break through after the two historic summits.
On the other hand, the Russian President Putin had been playing a major role in the Middle East region particularly in the Syrian endless war where the US and her allies seem to have shied or walked away from the devastating conflict which has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Russia’s military support to President Assad of Syria against IS1S or the so-called Islamic State had dramatically changed the military equation in favour of Assad. Similarly Russia had been dictating the tune in Crimea which she unilaterally annexed from Ukraine without the US raising any finger against the Russian aggression.
Suffice to say that Russia’s global influence has been on the rise in virtually all the continent of the world as a global power. Russia recently waded into the political crisis in the South American nation of Venezuela where President Nicolas Maduro is currently having a running battle with the US over the dire economic and political situation in that country even as the US had unilaterally and unconventionally recognized the opposition leader as the interim President of Venezuela. Russia promptly seized the opportunity by sending a powerful military force to checkmate the US influence and her undue interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs.
On the economic front China with her huge human and technological resources is currently confronting President Trump and US in what is commonly referred to as “Trade war” even as China an economic super power, had already spread her economic tentacles across the globe including the US herself as well as the so-called developed economies of Europe to the shock and utter discomfort of the US and her European allies. Needless to emphasize the point that the current extremely dangerous and unpredictable situation in the world today was clearly the consequence of President Trump’s myopic and thoughtless policy of “America first” or “To make America great again” which had totally isolated the US from her traditional allies and thereby abandoning her leadership role in global affairs as the defender of the weak and oppressed in the world. Indeed, the emergence of Trump on the U.S political scene obviously was a great set back to the American global powers and influence as well as a betrayal of trust which the global community had reposed in the US to provide global leadership.
President Trump had unwittingly reduced the most powerful and prestigious office in the world to a mere paper tiger, even as he has the penchant for always attacking and pouring unrestrained insults and venom on his perceived political enemies. He often uses unconventional twitter channels to launch blistering attacks on his enemies as was the case when recently he viciously attacked the Mayor of London Khan, whom he described as “a cold stone loser” during his recent State visit to the UK.
Trump also thrives in endless controversies as exemplified in his utopian idea of building a wall along the Mexico border which the American Congress had persistently refused to grant approval for the funds to execute the most ambitious project.
Akabogu (JP) is a Regular Public Affairs Commentator and Analyst.