For more than eight decades, the word “Munich” has meant one thing in international relations: a catastrophic policy of appeasement. Now, “Munich” may soon take on a fresh—and possibly even more fraught—meaning: the voluntary surrender of global hegemony.
In a series of remarks leading up to the just-ended Munich Security Conference, senior Trump administration officials—including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—signaled that the United States is substantially retreating from the greatest alliance in history, NATO, and that China and Russia could have what they’ve long sought: a “multipolar world,” in Rubio’s words. This was capped by a blustery, insulting speech in Munich by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance—remarks that some European officials interpreted as “the opening salvo in a trans-Atlantic divorce proceeding,” according to foreign-policy analyst Richard Fontaine.
The U.S.-orchestrated global order was starting to fall apart even before Trump began suggesting that he was no longer interested in being leader of the free world. But by brazenly treating some of Washington’s key allies as adversaries—and its autocratic adversaries as partners—Trump may be administering the death blow to a once-stable world system in which Washington served as overseer of a powerful alliance of democracies.
As another Munich attendee, Georgetown University scholar Charles Kupchan, put it to FP: “The atmosphere in Munich was that of a funeral.”
Written by Michael Hirsh, a columnist for *Foreign Policy.*
triscuitsrule on
The United States is dead
No_Mix_6835 on
> China and Russia could have what they’ve long sought: a “multipolar world,” in Rubio’s words
Its not what they want or not, we are already steadily moving towards that if we aren’t there already.
JonnyHopkins on
I think the US is just fine. Maybe weaker. What’s wrong with not being the global hegemony and just being a country?
Archangel1313 on
I’m not entirely convinced Trump is „surrendering“ anything. I have a feeling him and Putin have agreed to carve up the Northern hemisphere between them, as allies.
Trump can have all of North America, from Greenland to Panama and everything in between.
And Putin can have all of Europe from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Ocean, and all the way West to Great Britain.
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For more than eight decades, the word “Munich” has meant one thing in international relations: a catastrophic policy of appeasement. Now, “Munich” may soon take on a fresh—and possibly even more fraught—meaning: the voluntary surrender of global hegemony.
In a series of remarks leading up to the just-ended Munich Security Conference, senior Trump administration officials—including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—signaled that the United States is substantially retreating from the greatest alliance in history, NATO, and that China and Russia could have what they’ve long sought: a “multipolar world,” in Rubio’s words. This was capped by a blustery, insulting speech in Munich by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance—remarks that some European officials interpreted as “the opening salvo in a trans-Atlantic divorce proceeding,” according to foreign-policy analyst Richard Fontaine.
The U.S.-orchestrated global order was starting to fall apart even before Trump began suggesting that he was no longer interested in being leader of the free world. But by brazenly treating some of Washington’s key allies as adversaries—and its autocratic adversaries as partners—Trump may be administering the death blow to a once-stable world system in which Washington served as overseer of a powerful alliance of democracies.
As another Munich attendee, Georgetown University scholar Charles Kupchan, put it to FP: “The atmosphere in Munich was that of a funeral.”
Written by Michael Hirsh, a columnist for *Foreign Policy.*
The United States is dead
> China and Russia could have what they’ve long sought: a “multipolar world,” in Rubio’s words
Its not what they want or not, we are already steadily moving towards that if we aren’t there already.
I think the US is just fine. Maybe weaker. What’s wrong with not being the global hegemony and just being a country?
I’m not entirely convinced Trump is „surrendering“ anything. I have a feeling him and Putin have agreed to carve up the Northern hemisphere between them, as allies.
Trump can have all of North America, from Greenland to Panama and everything in between.
And Putin can have all of Europe from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Ocean, and all the way West to Great Britain.