#imperialism

"By most standards, Rubio occupies a privileged post: his desk in the White House is just a few steps from the Oval Office. But it is not the position that he hoped to occupy. In 2016, Rubio ran for President and lost to Trump in the primary.
(...)
The election in 2016 is the only one that Rubio has ever lost—an anomaly in a carefully managed ascent. In 1999, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, from a largely working-class area of West Miami; though he didn’t live in the district when the seat opened up, he moved there in time to campaign. Just four years later, he announced that he would run for speaker of the House. Florida had recently imposed term limits, and many senior House members were retiring. The leadership was open, and Rubio wanted it.

Many people in Florida politics felt that the time was right for a Cuban American speaker, but Rubio faced a difficult issue. For years, public-school teachers in Florida’s cities were paid more than those in rural areas, to compensate for their higher cost of living. A powerful group of legislators, mostly from rural north Florida, wanted salaries equalized across the state. No candidate for speaker had supported the change; Gaston Cantens, a Cuban American legislator who represented Miami, had refused to do so in the previous speaker race and ended up dropping out. But Rubio was amenable. “The rural legislators got their formula, and in exchange they went with Marco,” a former senior Democrat in the legislature told me. “Cantens was a carcass on the side of the road.” Rubio won. The Florida Bulldog, a regional newspaper, later calculated that the change had cost Miami teachers nearly a billion dollars. “The one constant in Marco Rubio’s career is that he has betrayed every mentor and every principle he’s ever had in order to claim power for himself,” a political figure in Miami told me."

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/19/marco-rubio-profile

#USA #Trump #Rubio #Imperialism #LatinAmerica

"t’s definitely a change of paradigm. What it will bring for the US remains to be seen, but I don’t see anything good coming from the damage done by all this to the image of America in the world: to the American brand, to speak in terms that they will understand.

Let me speak briefly in personal terms, just by way of telling you where I’m coming from. I’ve never been guilty of the anti-American feeling that became so prevalent in Latin America during the Cold War, and that remains in many shapes and forms. American culture has always been a sizable part of my intellectual and emotional life: American fiction has shaped the way I write, American political philosophers have shaped the way I think, and I dare say I know American history better than many Americans.

Now, to go beyond the creative energy in American culture: I’ve always detected the clear divorce between the better angels of American life – those ideals of democracy, freedom, equality – and their subversion or defeat at the hand of the worst angels, which have always existed. It’s a country that has never been able to live up to “the true meaning of its creed”, as Martin Luther King Jr said. But the creed has been there, and it has moved things forward, and it has been a model for movements all over the world.

What we see now, tragically, is a politics of deliberate cruelty, racism, misogyny and xenophobia that is not only unashamed, but proud to promote this worldview. Freedom of expression no longer exists. Freedom of thought is being persecuted.
Dissenters or even outspoken critics are being jailed, deported or rejected at the border. American leadership and authority came in part from these freedoms which no longer exist. The former ‘leader of the free world‘ is now a fascist rogue state siding with authoritarians and dictators like Putin, Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman. Who’s America’s enemy? Europe."

https://www.equator.org/articles/an-international-thug

#USA #Imperialism #LatinAmerica #Venezuela #Colombia #Trump

"Imperial power means the US and its allies can and regularly do destroy entire states halfway across the world, violating international law with impunity. They can and do bomb any individual or movement they don’t like, anywhere on the planet, for any reason. They can and do impose crushing sanctions, killing millions of people and bending governments to their will.

China simply does not project this kind of power. It is a semi-peripheral economy, with a GDP per capita that is 80% less than that of the core, equal to that of the Latin American average. Its military spending per capita is 40% less than the world average, and 1/20th that of the USA. China can resist the dictates of the core states to some extent, but it cannot and does not impose its will on the rest of the world as the core states do.

None of this is to say that Chinese firms do not exploit workers and resources in Africa. But this cannot be described as colonial or imperial power without rendering these terms analytically meaningless, and denying the violence of actually-existing colonialism.

Semi-peripheral countries like China play an intermediating role in the capitalist world-system. They provide cheap manufactured goods to the core in highly-competitive industries with razor thin profit margins. Capitalists operating in these industries are under pressure to obtain material inputs as cheaply as possible, which drives them to exploit resources in the periphery (like Africa), where imperialist interventions by the core states have weakened governments and cheapened labour and resources."

https://jasonhickel.substack.com/p/is-china-doing-colonialism-in-africa

#China #Africa #Imperialism #Colonialism #Neocolonialism #Capitalism

Neoliberal centrists like Anne Applebaum are so, so naive/hypocrites...

"[N]ow that Maduro is gone, the people who fought for years for justice, freedom, and self-determination aren’t going to want to live in a Trump-backed dictatorship staffed with Maduro’s cronies. One Venezuelan exile, who requested anonymity because of risks to his family, told me that on Saturday, he felt like he was on a roller coaster. First the elation of Maduro’s exit, then the shock of Trump’s press conference, then the angry realization that maybe nothing has changed and he still can’t go home.

I don’t think Americans will be any happier if another authoritarian is installed in Venezuela either. Most Americans still do want their country to stand for something other than greed, and most don’t want their expensive military to fight on behalf of Trump’s oil-industry donors. Trump’s pursuit of an illusory sphere of influence is unlikely to bring us peace or prosperity—any more than the invasion of Ukraine brought peace and prosperity to Russians—and this might become clear sooner than anyone expects.

If America is just a regional bully, after all, then our former allies in Europe and Asia will close their doors and their markets to us. Sooner or later, “our” Western Hemisphere will organize against us and fight back. Far from making us more powerful, the pursuit of American dominance will make us weaker, eventually leaving us with no sphere, and no influence, at all."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/trumps-american-dominance-may-leave-us-with-nothing/685503/

#USA #Trump #Venezuela #Imperialism

"Nordic governments are rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertions that Russian and Chinese vessels are operating near Greenland, warning that the claims are not supported by intelligence and are fueling destabilizing rhetoric, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Two senior Nordic diplomats with access to NATO intelligence briefings told the FT there is no evidence of Russian or Chinese ships or submarines operating around Greenland in recent years, directly contradicting Trump’s justification for U.S. control of the Arctic territory.

“I have seen the intelligence. There are no ships, no submarines,” one diplomat told the paper.

Trump has claimed that Greenland is “covered with Russian and Chinese ships” and argued that the U.S. must take control of the island for national security reasons — rhetoric that has intensified in recent weeks."

https://www.politico.eu/article/nordic-officials-reportedly-dismiss-trump-greenland-claims-nato-defense/

#USA #Trump #Imperialism #Greenland #Denmark #Disinformation #Propaganda

"Many Americans seeking to understand what drives President Donald Trump have looked back to the history of the 19th century, to when the world was carved up into spheres of influence dominated by a handful of “great powers.” But an influential new paper argues that we should cast our eyes further back, beyond the swaggering statesmen of the imperialist era to the age of absolute monarchs if we really want to understand the world Trump is shaping.

Wellesley College’s Stacie Goddard and Georgetown University’s Abraham Newman call this emerging order “neo-royalism,” and describe it as a global system dominated by rivalries between a small group of leaders and allied “hyper-elites,” all looking to gain wealth or status.

In a conversation just days after the Trump administration’s assertion of control over Venezuela and amidst the White House’s saber-rattling over Greenland, Goddard and Newman said the president’s focus on Venezuela and Greenland highlights a growing divergence between the 19th century definition of America’s national interest that many Trump critics accuse him of bringing back, and the reality of how the president is acting globally. It’s a divergence that their theory helps explain."

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/01/07/venezuela-royalism-donald-trump-00713276

#USA #Trump #Neoroyalism #Venezuela #Greenland #Imperialism

"THE PACE of change is breath-taking. On January 3rd United States special forces captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator. On January 6th Donald Trump said Venezuela would be “turning over” 30m to 50m barrels of oil to the United States. Two days later the regime said it would release “a significant number” of political prisoners. The next day an American delegation arrived in Caracas, the capital, to work on reopening the embassy. A Venezuelan team is expected to head to Washington, with Mr Trump saying he would meet them “pretty soon”.

A crucial question is whether Mr Trump will “run” Venezuela down the barrel of a gun—he initially threatened interim president Delcy Rodríguez with a fate worse than Mr Maduro’s if she didn’t comply with his plans for the country—or whether he might be more collaborative. The latter may signal an intention to let Ms Rodríguez settle in for a longer period, an alarming prospect for Venezuela’s democratic opposition. Setting aside the bluster there is clear evidence, especially from the emerging deal on oil, of collaboration.

Mr Trump initially framed the arrangement as pure coercion. Officials in Caracas spun it as a “simple sale, a commercial transaction”. The Economist has spoken to a range of oil executives, financiers and traders to assess the possible contours of the scheme. Much remains uncertain and could change, but the deal appears to be mutually advantageous, albeit with some coercive elements."

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2026/01/10/donald-trumps-venezuela-oil-deal-is-already-up-and-running

#USA #Trump #Venezuela #Oil #BigOil #FossilFuels #Imperialism

"So, about all that Venezuelan oil. Although President Trump has declared that America’s oil companies will soon “go in” to Venezuela and “spend billions of dollars” to rebuild that country’s petroleum industry, the administration is making two huge assumptions. First, that unleashing Venezuelan oil would yield lower energy prices for American consumers and giant profits for American companies. Second, that unlike previous administrations, which got bogged down for decades in failed nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump can simply let great American companies do what they do best—drill, baby, drill.

But my conversations with several oil-industry veterans and energy analysts indicate that the administration has the situation precisely backwards: Restoring Venezuela’s oil industry is completely unrealistic in the short term, and might not be in America’s economic and geopolitical interests at all. “Trump seems locked in the world of the 1980s and ’90s, when the U.S. imported most of its oil from a handful of foreign sources,” Arnab Datta, a lawyer who specializes in energy markets, told me. “But today, America is the world’s biggest oil producer. The play for Venezuelan oil doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the new world we’re in.”

Although some oil executives who met with Trump at the White House yesterday expressed a vague interest in doing business in Venezuela, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods offered a blunt warning about the country. “Today,” he said, “it’s uninvestable.”"

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/trump-plan-venezuela-oil-economic-mistake/685572/

#USA #Trump #Venezuela #Oil #FossilFuels #BigOil #Imperialism

I'm afraid the UK has learned nothing with Brexit...:

"Britain might yet enlarge its scope for sovereignty. If we truly wanted to take back control, we could, for instance, end our reliance on the US for the country’s nuclear deterrent, and return to the status quo ante before Polaris. We could develop a domestic space actor similar to Ariane, a pan-European organisation that is, nevertheless, majority owned by the French government. We certainly need to produce at least some microprocessors for domestic consumption. And we need a strategy for meaningful energy security.

Because of the strategic importance of such shifts, the state should hold at least some equity in these enterprises — in a manner similar to France’s APE (Agence des participations de l’État). Not as excessive as it sounds, it simply means reversing the more egregious mistakes of the Thatcher and Blair years. If uncorrected, these errors — such as discarding the importance of industry — will only create an increasing national vulnerability as the old order fragments,

Taking back control can’t just be rhetoric. To mean anything, those words can’t be constrained to borders, money or laws — they must encompass vital strategic industry. Otherwise, Britain will remain the least sovereign middle power of all. We may have left the clutches of Brussels a decade ago, but in a perverse inversion of the Boston Tea Party, we now risk becoming the 51st State of America — just without the voting rights."

https://unherd.com/2026/01/britain-hasnt-taken-back-control/

#UK #USA #Trump #Imperialism #EU #Brexit

"Simultaneous disruption and progress, with a relentless Taiwan-focused capability development deadline.

That’s the overriding theme of the 25th edition of the Department of Defense’s China Military Power Report, released on Dec. 23, 2025. Despite extensive leadership purges and ongoing disciplinary investigations across China’s military and defense industry, the 2025 report concludes that China continues to make progress toward General Secretary Xi Jinping’s 2027 “Centennial Military Building Goal” and associated warfighting capabilities against Taiwan.

The report shows China’s military undergoing simultaneous disruption and advancement, with leadership purges and procurement-related investigations generating short-term turbulence even as Xi’s armed forces surge forward. The report offers the clearest articulation to date of the origins, meaning, and operational implications of Xi’s 2027 goal, framing it as a capabilities-based requirement oriented toward coercion and potential warfighting against Taiwan and U.S. and allied intervention forces. It documents significant progress in nuclear posture enhancement, long-range conventional strike, and capability and resilience of supporting architecture. Moreover, it situates gray-zone coercion, Chinese coast guard and maritime militia activity, and expanding overseas access within a broader pattern of progress. Finally, while leadership investigations and removals have imposed immediate readiness and continuity costs, the Pentagon judges that such actions may ultimately yield a more disciplined, coherent, and capable Chinese military. This underscores the central conclusion: Organizational churn should not obscure continued Chinese military modernization momentum toward 2027 and beyond."

https://warontherocks.com/2026/01/latest-pentagon-report-chinas-military-advancing-amid-churn/

#USA #China #Taiwan #Militarism #Imperialism

"The company suing Greenland for the right to mine rare earth minerals has hired a lobbying firm deeply connected to the Trump administration, increasing the threat of US action against the territory.

Energy Transition Minerals yesterday announced it had hired Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm run by Brian Ballard, a major donor and fundraiser for Trump, to assert what it says are its claims on the territory. Attorney General Pam Bondi, along with Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, were both hired by Trump straight out of Ballard Partners.

The news, unreported previously, comes as the White House has stepped up its rhetoric over Greenland, saying this week that it was exploring all options to take control of the territory, including a military invasion.

Energy Transition Minerals, an Australian mining company, was given a license nearly twenty years ago to explore the Kvanefjeld deposit, which contains over 11 million metric tons of rare earth minerals, including large quantities of uranium. The size of Kvanefjeld makes it the largest thorium deposit, the second-largest uranium deposit and overall the third-largest rare earths deposit in the world.

In a world hungry for new energy sources, Kvanefjeld’s significance can’t be overstated."

https://www.donotpanic.news/p/trump-cronies-hired-by-greenland

#USA #Trump #Greenland #RareEarths #Imperialism

"Anyone who is confident that Trump is merely trolling should book a holiday in Caracas.

But why Greenland? First, because it would be easy. Much like “Operation Absolute Resolve” in Venezuela, Trump could annex Greenland from the performative comfort of the situation room (he created a look-alike in Mar-a-Lago). It would take an hour or two and risk no US casualties. That way Trump can keep emulating Barack Obama, those iconic pictures of whom watching the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden he so envies.

Though Danes are no pacifists, resisting the superpower would be suicidal.

Second, adding Greenland to his column would be lucrative. Trump’s libertarian friends have been eyeing it for some time. Peter Thiel, who wants to set up crypto-empowered “network states” on undeveloped territory, has invested in Praxis, a start-up that aims to do just that and which has scouted Greenland. Trump’s ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, was a co-founder with Thiel and Elon Musk of PayPal. Silicon Valley is awash with billionaires invested in one kind of networked venture or another. Greenland is high on most lists. Unlike Mars, occupying Greenland is doable.

On top of pleasing the libertarians, taking Greenland would go down well with Maga ideologues, since it would kill Nato in one swoop."

https://www.ft.com/content/21f3f75e-9f98-4e23-88cb-eaca05dc16f6

#USA #Trump #Imperialism #Denmark #Greenland #Venezuela

"President Trump declared on Wednesday evening that his power as commander in chief is constrained only by his “own morality,” brushing aside international law and other checks on his ability to use military might to strike, invade or coerce nations around the world.

Asked in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”

When pressed further about whether his administration needed to abide by international law, Mr. Trump said, “I do.” But he made clear he would be the arbiter when such constraints applied to the United States.

“It depends what your definition of international law is,” he said.

Mr. Trump’s assessment of his own freedom to use any instrument of military, economic or political power to cement American supremacy was the most blunt acknowledgment yet of his worldview. At its core is the concept that national strength, rather than laws, treaties and conventions, should be the deciding factor as powers collide."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/us/politics/trump-interview-power-morality.html

#USA #Trump #InternationalLaw #Imperialism #Militarism