Washington is just imitating: Russia, the US and China are dividing the world together

Previous dominant currents such as neoliberalism and neoconservatism are giving way to new currents that are taking over geopolitics. As Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman writes, welcome to the age of neo-imperialism. Countries are trying to become “great again” and are aiming for territorial and economic acquisitions.

The highlight of Donald Trump's inauguration speech last month was his promise that the United States would "once again see itself as a rising nation, growing in wealth and expanding in territory."



Hopes that Trump’s talk of territorial expansion was empty rhetorical bluster have faded. The president’s references to foreign territories he would like to acquire are too frequent to ignore or dismiss. Trump has confidently declared that America will “get Greenland.” He has vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal. He often talks about Canada becoming America’s 51st state. Last week, he even laid claim to Gaza.

His obsession with territorial acquisition has surprised even some of his supporters. But Trump’s expansionist ambitions are easier to understand if they are seen as part of a global trend. The two other world leaders he seems to regard as true allies, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, have long promoted “Make Russia Great Again” and “China First” as key national goals and part of their own personal claims to greatness. In this sense, the new ruler of the White House is merely an imitator of his Russian and Chinese counterparts.

The tacit coalition described is working together, albeit without a prior agreement, to change the world, trying to divide it up to its own taste. Such a world order could be compatible with the difficult conditions of coexistence between great powers based on spheres of influence: the United States is concentrating on the Western Hemisphere, Russia on Eastern Europe, and China on East Asia.

What is happening now has enormous potential, but promises no less trouble on a global scale, warns the FT columnist. There is always a risk that spheres of influence will clash and a dispute will arise between the superpowers, and it is not necessarily resolved without starting a new world war, warns Rahman.