Countries such as Canada may have no choice but to realign themselves if U.S. President Donald Trump intends to dictate from his office, based on his 'morality,' which smaller nations will be granted sovereignty and which won’t.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Last week, after the United States sent troops into Caracas to capture Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator, the Trump administration made some shocking boasts about American power in the 21st century.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that the international laws meant to prevent powerful nations from preying on weaker ones are irrelevant to him, and that the only thing that constrains his use of dominant military force is “my own morality.”
One of his chief advisers, Stephen Miller, was just as blunt. “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties,” he said. “But we live in a world, in the real world […] that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”
This “might is right” posturing was not unexpected, given that the Trump administration had announced it late last year in its National Security Strategy. But to see it suddenly in action was still jarring. An emboldened Mr. Trump followed up the Caracas coup by renewing his threat to take Greenland, without ruling out military force.
As this space has said, the Trump administration’s claim that power, not law, provides legitimacy does indeed date back to ancient times – the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, to be exact, when Athens told the island state of Melos to surrender or face annihilation.
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The Athenian general and historian Thucydides famously summed up Athens’ attitude when he wrote that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
But is it true, as Mr. Miller claims, that it is an “iron law” that the world is governed by strength and power, and that international laws are mere niceties?
On the contrary, history teaches us that countries that forgo the legitimacy and stability gained from respect for the rule of law often do not last long. Napoleonic France, Wilhelmine Germany and Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich: they were all built on fear and seemingly overwhelming military power. But they didn’t last long once a coalition, reacting to their aggression, got rolling.
Today, a big reason the U.S. is in a position of economic dominance is the rules-based liberal order it helped to create after the Second World War.
Mr. Trump and his advisers are now pretending that never happened and are returning to an era of unchecked power that has repeatedly been rejected as unworkable, but only after great catastrophes.
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One historic instance of that was the Congress of Vienna in 1815. An attempt to rebalance power in Europe after the disastrous Napoleonic Wars, it is criticized for cementing the powers of the great kingdoms of that era, but it is also praised for bringing a century of relative peace to the continent, and for its recognition that diplomacy, not dominance, creates stability and prosperity.
The real lesson of history, Napoleon included, is that unchecked might makes right for only a short period of time. Countries that rely on force alone for legitimacy can quickly become overextended and isolated.
Already, America’s allies are questioning the reliability of an administration that blithely boasts that no one can stop it from seizing Greenland, as Mr. Miller did.
They are also, by necessity, beginning to explore ways to limit their reliance on the American market. This week, for instance, Prime Minister Mark Carney is in China hoping to reset trade relations with Beijing.
Countries such as Canada may have no choice but to realign themselves if Mr. Trump intends to dictate from his office, based on his “morality,” which smaller nations will be granted sovereignty and which won’t, and on what bullying terms that sovereignty will be permitted.
In regurgitating its own version of the tired contention that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must,” the U.S. is also overlooking an important fact: the Athenians sacked Melos, but lost the war with Sparta.
It’s worth remembering, too, that Napoleon, for all his military brilliance, only held sway over Europe for 15 years and died alone in exile.
He and other would-be strongmen found out that, given time, the iron law of might corrodes. If history is any guide, Mr. Trump and his administration may well be planting the seeds of American decline.