When examined from the perspective of structural realism regarding the behavioral patterns of states in international relations theory, the aggressive stance displayed by the United States (US) during Donald Trump’s second presidential term symbolizes a dramatic reversion to the “Hard Power” policies of the early 20th century. Washington, revising the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 in accordance with contemporary geopolitical necessities, has initiated a new wave of interventionism under the name “Donroe Doctrine.”
Proposed in 1823 by James Monroe with the aim of keeping European colonialism out of the Western Hemisphere –but having evolved over time from Andrew Johnson’s intervention in Mexico to Theodore Roosevelt’s assertion of “international police power,” and from Kennedy’s blockade of Cuba to Reagan’s support for the Contras, into the primary instrument of legitimacy for US imperialism– this doctrine has today settled at the center of the global agenda through a strategy in which Trump has arrested Venezuelan leader Maduro on charges of running a “narco-state” and laid claim to the country’s oil.[1] While consolidating the “America First” base, this historical trajectory has transformed into a risky political gamble where the discourse of democracy has been replaced by an overt pursuit of resource control and hegemony, creating a geopolitical rupture that forcibly imposes a concept of “a single America” across the North and South American continents.
“Operation Absolute Resolve,” the most concrete manifestation of this doctrinal transformation, has gone down in history as a show of force that rendered international law virtually dysfunctional. With this operation announced from Mar-a-Lago, Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were taken from their stronghold in Caracas and detained in handcuffs aboard the US Navy vessel USS Iwo Jima, while the Trump administration legitimized this move based on a 2020 narco-terrorism indictment.[2] In this operation, which abducted Maduro and killed 32 Cuban guards in just eight minutes, discourses of democracy were completely abandoned, and the sole priority was identified as “oil”; surprisingly, key figures of the regime were kept in office, effectively converting the country into a “Trump protectorate.”[3] In this process, the cold exclusion of figures such as Nobel laureate opposition leader María Corina Machado by Trump proves that Washington is pursuing pragmatic resource management rather than an ideological shift, demonstrating that the US has completely cast aside the concept of soft power to establish hegemony not through “smart power” but through “brute force.”
This domination by Washington is not merely a regional arrangement but a strategic embargo aimed at liquidating the presence of actors such as China, Russia, and Iran in the Western Hemisphere. While the Trump administration imposes the condition of severing all military and economic ties with the Eurasian bloc upon interim president Delcy Rodriguez in exchange for the resumption of oil exports, it aims to bring the regime to its knees with the threat of financial bankruptcy by taking control of Venezuela’s tankers.[4] This energy war has also been carried to the North Atlantic with the seizure of the Russian-flagged tanker “Marinera” by the US Coast Guard off the coast of Iceland; while the Russian side characterizes this situation as “21st-century piracy,” US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has declared that the blockade will continue.[5] On January 7, the Russian Ministry of Transport announced that communication with this vessel cruising in international waters was cut off following the unlawful intervention.[6] Claims of sovereignty over Greenland and the US presence at strategic points such as Zengezur, while intended to block alternative routes to the Silk Road, clearly reveal that a global “fortress siege” operation is being conducted against China.
This “Hard Power” projection, continuing on a global scale, has also driven the European Union (EU) into a search for radical strategic autonomy. Trump’s moving of plans to occupy Greenland onto an operational plane has resulted in one North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member threatening another with a violation of territorial integrity, dragging the transatlantic alliance into “uncharted waters.”[7] The EU axis, centered particularly on France and Germany, has begun to take historical steps toward establishing its own “defense architecture” against this unpredictable and threatening stance of the US, breaking away from the classical NATO understanding.
The Declaration of Intent signed between Ukraine, France, and the United Kingdom on January 6, 2026, envisaging the deployment of multinational forces to Ukrainian territory, represents Paris’s will to take the initiative in continental security and to show resistance against Washington’s pressures for “compromise.”[8] This move by Zelensky, Macron, and Starmer is a radical response to Trump’s policy of “cooling” the Ukraine peace dialogue using the Venezuela trump card and forcing his allies into his own line.[9] Indeed, the EU now appears determined to protect its survival, even at the cost of entering a war, in an order where Washington unilaterally imposes “American interests.”
As Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zakharova has also emphasized, Washington’s actions, which disregard human life and international law for the sake of energy greed, have carried the global system to the very threshold of chaos.[10] The absolute hegemony the US seeks to obtain by uniting North and South America faces resistance from Russia and China in Eurasia, and from the EU led by Germany and France, which seeks strategic independence in Europe. This new “Great Game” has completely eliminated the diplomatic courtesy of the 21st century and replaced it with an uncanny period extending from land occupations to piracy, where military force is the sole determinant.
The current conjuncture indicates that the US will continue to cleanse all foreign military and economic presence on the continent via surgical operations in order to realize this situation, which can be termed the “United Americas” ideal. It is foreseeable that the Trump administration will use the result obtained in Venezuela to create a domino effect against other “ideological islets” such as Cuba and Nicaragua; this situation bears the risk of the Western Hemisphere transforming into a closed basin where international law is not valid, but only Washington’s domestic law and security norms apply. This zero-tolerance approach shown against China’s Belt and Road investments in the region and Russia’s strategic nuclear patrols heralds a new dark age where competition between super powers evolves from proxy wars to direct naval blockades and threats of territorial occupation, and where the rules-based world order is replaced by an anarchy where “the strong are right.”
On the European front, it is expected that the EU, led by France and Germany, will experience a harsher and militarily-based rupture regarding the US usage of NATO not as a cooperation platform but as a “chain of command.” The attempt to deploy a multinational European force to Ukraine constitutes not only a barrier against Russia but also a “strategic veto” against Washington using European security as a trading element for its own bargains. In the coming process, it is projected that this structural rupture in Transatlantic relations will deepen with the EU’s effort to establish its own nuclear deterrence and independent logistics lines; and that the world will settle onto a multipolar and high-tension conflict ground reminiscent of 19th-century imperialist rivalries, between the “American Continental Hegemony” and the “Euro-Asian Resistance Axis.”
In summary, Washington’s moves extending from Venezuela to Greenland constitute the final nail in the coffin of the “liberal order” declared at the beginning of the 21st century. As Moscow has also emphasized, Washington’s actions, which disregard human life and international law for the sake of energy greed, have carried the global system to the very threshold of chaos. The US effort to transform North and South America into a holistic geopolitical block faces resistance from Russia and China in Eurasia, and from the EU led by France, which seeks strategic independence in Europe. At this point reached, international relations have stripped off the rhetoric of “soft power” and “export of democracy,” transforming into a “Great Game” focused on pure military power and resource control, similar to the early 20th century; in this new era, sovereignty rights are no longer determined by international conventions, but by military capacity on the field and economic blockade power.
[1] Stefan Grobe, “What is the Monroe Doctrine that Trump invoked to justify the Maduro raid?”, Euronews, https://www.euronews.com/2026/01/07/what-is-the-monroe-doctrine-that-trump-invoked-to-justify-the-maduro-raid, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[2] Matthew Olay, “Trump Announces U.S. Military’s Capture of Maduro”, U.S. Department of War, https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4370431/trump-announces-us-militarys-capture-of-maduro/, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[3] Diana Cariboni, “Venezuela and the journey from Monroe’s Doctrine to Trump’s Jungle Law”, OpenDemocracy, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/venezuela-coup-trump-united-states-monroe-doctrine-maduro, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[4] Anne Flaherty, Allison Pecorin ve Rachel Scott, “Trump demands Venezuela kick out China and Russia, partner only with US on oil: Exclusive”, ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-demands-venezuela-kick-china-russia-partner-us/story?id=128963238, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[5] “Piratstvo i narusheniye Konventsii OON. Glavnoye o zaderzhanii SSHA tankera ‘Marinera’”, TASS, https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/26103357, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[6] “Mintrans RF podtverdil zaderzhaniye sudna ‘Marinera’ VMS SSHA”, TASS, https://tass.ru/politika/26103299, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[7] “White House Draws Up Plans to Acquire Greenland as Trump Revives Territorial Ambitions”, High North News, https://highnorthnews.com/en/white-house-draws-plans-acquire-greenland-trump-revives-territorial-ambitions, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[8] “Ukraine, France, UK sign declaration of intent on multinational forces deployment”, Global Times, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202601/1352509.shtml, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[9] “Ekspert Zharikhin: situatsiya v Venesuele zatormozila dialog RF i SSHA po Ukraine”, TASS, https://tass.ru/politika/26104211, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
[10] Anfisa Dubrovskaya, “Zakharova otvetila na zayavleniye SSHA o ‘beskrovnoy’ operatsii v Venesuele”, Gazeta Ru, https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2026/01/07/27574075.shtml?utm_auth=false, (Access Date: 07.01.2026).
