What Trump’s foreign policy means for China, Russia, and the Western Hemisphere.

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has Global aspirations – Despite his promises to focus on the slogan “America First.” The past few weeks have witnessed American movements in Venezuela; threats to Greenland, Europe, and Iran; Trump’s public request for the Nobel Peace Prize.

President’s latest global push: The Peace Council.

With its $1 billion lifetime membership fee, the new body has been billed as a secondary attempt to replace the United Nations. So far, the countries that have joined are relatively small players on the global stage, including Belarus, Azerbaijan, and El Salvador.

But whether the council ends up succeeding in its mission of creating “a smarter, more effective international peacebuilding body” remains to be seen, as it is the latest attempt by Trump to exert a new kind of international power, especially over America’s neighbors.

He said: “He is trying to re-establish the American sphere of influence and its control over the Western Hemisphere.” Monica Duffy passed awayProfessor of International Politics at Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies.

Today, he explained Co-host Noel King spoke with Tufte about where our idea of ​​”world order” came from and where it might be headed after the Trump shakeup. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s a lot more in the full podcast, so give it a listen Today, he explained Wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcast, Pandoraand Spotify.

Incredibly, we are still in January 2026, and we have witnessed some really important events in Venezuela, Over Greenlandwith European Union and NATO. All of this leads people to say that President Donald Trump is Trying to reshape the world order.

Therefore, the world order was established after World War II. The United States and its Western allies decided to do so Establishing the rules that govern the international system However A series of institutionsIncluding, by the way, the United Nations. What they were trying to do was to create a legal system – international law, norms and rules in order to prevent a third world war.

The idea was that the use of force – the use of military force – was no longer an acceptable form of international politics on the world stage.

This is what President Trump seeks to change, undo, or disrupt. You’ve written about a philosophy that you think is relevant now. What is philosophy?

He is trying to re-establish America’s sphere of influence Control of the Western Hemisphere. Sphere of influence is best understood as control without rule. States within the sphere are sovereign on paper; They have their own government, their own borders, their own money, and they have international recognition. But their strategic choices are limited by the superpower, in this case the United States.
What (the United States) is doing is saying, under President Trump and his administration, that (countries within its jurisdiction) cannot freely choose alliances and trading partners without crossing lines or without obtaining approval from the United States.

What sphere of influence does the United States seek to achieve? Obviously we want to have a big impact in Venezuela. Greenland, the president has been very clear there as well. But what other countries and regions do we see that Trump wants to influence? What does he want them to do or not do?

We know that he wants the Western domain under US control. This was part of National Security Strategy who was released. It is very clear that the United States will dominate the region. You can look at what happened in Venezuela, where it was just said that Venezuela can no longer have (formal trade) relations with China and Russia.

But ironically, the Trump administration also wants to have global reach. Now we see the tensions. there Fleet moving to the Middle East In order to make Iran act. Hence, the United States also wants to maintain its influence in Asia. It has allies there, of course: Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

So, on the one hand, it is already pressing its case in the Western Hemisphere, but it is also insisting that it should have some influence in these other regions. Asia is perhaps the most problematic region. Because of course, if the United States can have pointy elbows in its own sphere, China can make the argument, so why shouldn’t we?

This makes me wonder: Who are the other great powers? Who are the other countries trying to influence the small countries here?

And perhaps in first and second place, of course, is the Russian Federation, which invaded Ukraine in 2014 and then again in 2022. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has made it clear that he wants to largely determine the foreign policy of the Ukrainians. He does not want to join the European Union or NATOIt does not want to expand NATO. So the Russian Federation is one.

And of course, the other country is China, which The economy is boomingsuch as a large population and a large area of ​​land.

This makes me think about the way (Chinese leader) Xi (Jinping) and Putin talk about their goals in the world. Let’s go back to early January, after the United States removed (Venezuelan President) Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela.

Stephen Miller appeared on television He told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “We live in the real world, Jake, ruled by force, governed by force, ruled by force. These are the iron laws of the world—since the beginning of time.”

It was eye-catching. It reminded me of the way Vladimir Putin talks about the world and the way Xi talks about the world.

Will the United States do what Russia and China are already doing?

Noel, that’s a great way to put it. But what I would say is that we were already there.

The US superpower has always been (about) trade, free trade. So the irony here is that we didn’t need to use force to do this. We now use force, but at a time in history we find that it is not effective in securing our national strategic goals.

What’s shameful here is that the United States, under President Trump, seems to like this strong foreign policy. You get quick victories, (like) Venezuela. But in the long run, this erodes American reputation. In the long run, it actually undermines our interests.

What you will see is the balance against the United States. You’re already seeing the hedging, where there’s (Prime Minister) Mark Carney from Canada advertisement“We know that the old order will not return. We should not mourn it.” We are in a new world order, and we cannot depend on our allies – we cannot depend on the United States. And he is not alone.

You said that the United States uses force, and I wonder to what extent you think this is true. So, yes, we have entered Venezuela. It was a quick job, I guess we can put it that way. Greenland, we didn’t actually do anything, we didn’t even end up imposing tariffs on Europe during the whole Greenland battle. President Trump backed down.

So when you say we use force, how do you see that? You’re not talking about shoes on the floor, are you?

The Trump administration has said regarding the Greenland operation, before it calmed down, fortunately, that they would not rule it out Putting American forces there And recreate those rules.

I was not completely confident that the United States would not deploy troops. I’m sure Europeans fear That the United States was about to take this step.

We love sanctions, Trump loves tariffs, and we use them not just against adversaries, but against allies. Noel, that’s the difference, isn’t it? It is that we threaten our allies, and because the United States is so quick to pull the trigger, we cannot be trusted not to use force.

It feels like we’re headed toward something at this moment. The Trump Peace Council, at this point, is a simple attempt to replace the United Nations. We talked about international standards being turned upside down. What do you think we are heading towards?

What’s worrying is that there actually seems to be one individual within this administration who has a lot of say about the direction we’re headed.

But the question is: how far is the administration willing to push this? What worries me, Noel, is that (Bombing) Iran (In June 2025) It was a successful operation. At least, they sold it that way. Experts say: “No, we are He did not deny Iran’s nuclear capability for a long time,” but (the Trump administration) He considers it a victory.

And secondly, Venezuela was quick and dirty, right? We went in and out.

These small successes may encourage them a little more. The question is: How will our allies respond? And we see how they respond; They unite. They’re saying, we have to keep this together because now the United States is no longer a reliable partner. They feel like they are fighting for the Western liberal order and that Ukraine is the front line.

Then what lessons do the two rivals – the Russian Federation and China – learn from this? Xi’s China beats its chest and says, “I’m the big boy in the room,” right? “We are stable. We will not use force.” Then Putin looks at this smirk and says, “Great, if the United States can get away with these tricks, so can I” — right?

We’re in a kind of Wild West situation. The question is: How will they respond to it?