Trump and the unmaking of global rules

Al Mayadeen English (awip)
Al Mayadeen English

America first, int'l law last: From Gaza to Ukraine, Trump’s foreign policy accelerates the erosion of global norms, weakening multilateral institutions and normalizing power over law.

In an analysis by Patrick Wintour, The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, the present moment is framed as one of historical suspension, echoing Philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s warning that periods between orders are defined by uncertainty and heightened consequence. In such times, Wintour suggests, even modest political choices can reshape the global landscape.

Writing against the backdrop of 2025, Wintour argues that many Western leaders now see the post–Second World War system of international relations as faltering. The rules-based order that the US helped build after 1945, he notes, is facing a deep crisis of legitimacy, as legal norms and institutions struggle to command authority in an increasingly fragmented world.

In Wintour's view, there was no shortage of advance notice about the damage Donald Trump would inflict on that global framework.

In February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the rupture in stark terms during his Senate confirmation hearing. “The postwar global order is not just obsolete, it is now a weapon being used against us,” he said. “And all this has led us to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today.”

Rubio argued that the rules-based order rested on a flawed belief that national interests could be subordinated to a “liberal world order” in which all nations would converge into a Western-led democratic community. Humanity, he said, had been told it was destined to abandon national identity and become “one human family and citizens of the world.” “This was not just a fantasy,” Rubio added. “We now know it was a dangerous delusion.”