How historians will view these last two weeks of chaos and turbulence following the inauguration of the new presidential regime in America is too early to say.
What is already clear is that something unprecedented in US history is happening. What is not yet clear is whether or not American institutions of democracy and law, and the established international order brokered by America after World War Two, can withstand the onslaught of executive orders unleashed that has left politicians both of left and right parties dumbstruck.
In a deliberate strategy of firing salvo after salvo of directives affecting both domestic and international policies, and millions of livelihoods and lives directly and immediately, the White House has simply overwhelmed any potential opposition into stunned inaction. Putin’s meatgrinder strategy of throwing thousands of Russian lives to the slaughter attempting to overwhelm Ukrainian defences seems to have inspired his alter-ego across the Atlantic.
After steeling themselves in anticipation of a new American isolationism, political leaders and diplomats in Europe now watch aghast as a brazen, unbridled imperialism makes claims on Panama, Canada, Greenland and now Gaza. Written and unwritten laws, spoken and unspoken assumptions, treaties, agreements and accepted modes of diplomacy are outrageously trampled upon, to the delight of autocrats in Russia, China, Hungary and Israel with their own expansionist ambitions.
Upheaval
We have entered a new phase of an anti-liberal international order, a great cause for concern. Hitler’s trashing of the Treaty of Versailles as a barrier to his making Germany great again encouraged Japan’s moves on China and Mussolini’s seizure of Ethiopia. We must brace ourselves for a rocky path ahead. If this were just a matter of American domestic politics, I would not address it in a Weekly Word. But this is not just about repealing abortion laws in the US or reversing trends in gender issues. This affects the whole world order, including here in Europe. This is probably the biggest upheaval in geopolitics since the fall of communism – unfortunately this time undermining democracy, human rights, good governance and rule of law.
The enormity of the past two weeks has not yet fully sunken in. The warnings were plentiful and clear. But the realities now unfolding far exceed the worst fears. One hoped the president’s bark would be worse than his bite. But he is headed fullspeed towards his stated goal of shattering the existing order to usher in a new chaotic era of great-power competition. Conventions, institutions and the rule of law are brushed aside with impunity as he makes good his threats to destroy independent government agencies, politicise the military and sidestep Congress. He treats allies like enemies. He decries international institutions that have underpinned the world order for the past seven decades, US-led initiatives like the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and NATO.
While claiming to defend Christian values, he has pardoned those convicted of violent crimes during the January 6 storming of the Capitol and launched a vindictive programme of retribution against all investigators into that violence. He thus joins the other wolves in sheep’s clothing he admires like Putin, Orban and Wilders, who also pretend to be defenders of the faith.
Bluster
By releasing the richest man in the world with a carte blanche to close down the massive USAID programme overnight, millions of the world’s poorest and neediest have been plunged into fear, uncertainty, hunger and sickness. Christianity Today reported that the successful HIV/AIDS treatment program that supported 20 million people on antiretroviral drugs, mostly in Africa, was rapidly shut down this week after the Trump administration froze all foreign assistance. Most of USAID’s budget went to grants for specific development projects, including at Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, World Relief, Catholic Relief Services, and many other faith-based groups, stated CT.
Sasha, a Ukrainian Christian leader, told me this week that soldiers defending their nation against the genocidal invasion had been greatly disappointed when boasts that the war would be ended within 24 hours proved empty bluster. Many Ukrainian aid groups also had to stop work this week after US foreign aid was halted.
A large contingent of Ukrainian pastors, parliamentarians and military chaplains attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington this week, seeking to persuade the new administration that further Russian advances would result in the destruction and looting of churches, the arrests of pastors and priests and the repression of non-Russian Orthodox congregations. Some 50 priests in Russian-occupied territories have been killed over the last three years, while other priests have been forced to leave or to celebrate Mass in secret.
Yet, said Sasha, Putin’s war had united Ukraine and the Ukrainian churches like never before, adding: ‘Our hope for Ukraine’s future needs to be in God, not in any man.’
Till next week,
