Less than two months after winning the United States of America’s presidential election promising a non-interventionist foreign policy, Donald Trump has revealed a different side to his approach — one that is expansionist and more in keeping with the worldview of those he has previously criticised. The president-elect has in social media posts suggested that Canada should become the 51st state of the US, referring to the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, as a governor to underscore his point. Then, he threatened that his administration might take over the Panama Canal if Panama, which controls the waterway linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, does not offer US ships better terms for their transit. Mr Trump has also revived an earlier proposal he had floated for the US to purchase Greenland — a Danish territory. Unsurprisingly, the governments of Panama, Greenland and Denmark have rejected Mr Trump’s suggestions. In Canada, even Conservative Party leaders otherwise sympathetic to Mr Trump have shot down any prospect of the country considering a union with the US. Yet it would be naïve to take Mr Trump’s comments lightly. His recent statements do appear to clash with his campaign platform, which was built around the premise of America needing to pull back from remote conflicts and regions to focus on rebuilding itself.
But a deeper look suggests that Mr Trump’s statements are in keeping with a global pattern and not necessarily a break from his own approach. The wars and invasions launched by the US in recent decades were mostly couched in the language of exporting democracy and toppling so-called despots to supposedly defend human rights. By contrast, Mr Trump has been blunt about his motives for eyeing the territories of other nations: to him, it is about defending what he describes as American interests, whether they are tied to the economy or to national security. That approach is a throwback to the early 20th century when the principle of might is right was accepted. It is also synchronous with the logic used by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to invade Ukraine, and by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to bomb and occupy Gaza, the West Bank, and parts of Lebanon and Syria. If Mr. Trump is serious about his proposals, it would be the final nail in the coffin of an international law-based order already under immense strain. India must make sure it does not get caught under the rubble.