The U.S.-dominated international system is unraveling as major powers and Global South countries reject American pressure and assert their independence. Without a shift toward cooperation and respect for multipolarity, the U.S. risks becoming the target of a hostile global realignment rather than leading a stable new order.

The extreme radicalism of the U.S. president’s thinking, coupled with the chaotic nature of his policies and their implementation, has significantly accelerated fragmentation and may even precipitate the collapse of the global governance structure.

Arbitrary policies introduced by the U.S. president have accelerated a shift of the international order and introduced new dynamics to relations between major powers. Most countries are reluctant to follow Trump’s lead because they have little to gain by doing so. Several are quietly thinking about ways to turn his disruptions into opportunity.

Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has attempted to reduce the U.S. focus on Europe in order to shift resources to the Indo-Pacific. But geopolitical rivalry can neither resolve America’s own problems nor the challenges facing the world.

After a decade of deglobalization and U.S. geopolitics, globalization is no longer at crossroads, but unraveling. The longer this plunge prevails, the greater will be its costs.

With the Global South rising, Europe’s renewed emphasis on strategic independence from the United States could partially offset its relative decline in hard power and accelerate global multi-polarity.

Trump’s second-term foreign policy asserts U.S. hegemony in the Western Hemisphere while exploring a great power system based on spheres of influence. Its success hinges on defining these spheres—especially between the U.S. and China—without destabilizing East Asia.

The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.

The world’s future will hinge on a choice between unilateral confrontation, as exemplified by U.S. President Donald Trump; multilateral confrontation, as in America’s alliance with the EU; or multilateral cooperation, as advocated by China. It’s clear which one will be better for mankind.

Trump’s foreign policy moves have been polarizing to say the least - but with competing voices within his own cabinet involved, the strongman approach may not be the ultimate outcome of the early administration’s moves.