Too soon to tell. Also not sure what their plan is and what success means there.
It’s quite possible they intend to do the whole small yard, high fence thing they’ve been pushing with Democrats for a long time but really kick it into gear. This has the benefit of crashing quality of life and increasing expenses for the working class which increases their desperation and the potential for exploitation of enlarged underclasses of people who’ve slipped under from all of this and are only barely not drowning.
It would also involve (attempting) reshoring from China, beating corporations until they comply like with Russia, allowing a few carve-outs (as with Russia), then stoking a war over Taiwan, using the resulting propaganda storm to force heavy sanctions and decoupling (with again some carve-outs for valuable corporations that can’t or refuse to pull out right away). That plus the rising reaction in the US and Europe bodes ill for those in the imperial core. What they do next in such a scenario is up for debate. I personally think naked resource grabs like what Trump talks about, just taking Greenland, openly invading/couping nations in Africa and Latin America, completely dropping the mask and seizing as much as they can to pull into their “small yard” behind their high fence and put up as much of a wall around China/Russia and as much of a squeeze on the two of them as they can by using what power they can to deny them as many markets as possible and to maximally disrupt their supply chains (Trump’s talk of taking the Panama canal for instance would be potentially part of the US shoring up its naval control of the world, it has only sea-power not land-power potential so must maximize control of choke-points to dominate and enforce embargoes and sanctions). They’d try to combine this with continued operations to foster terrorism and instability in key regions to block the belt and road as well as resource extraction for China’s manufacturing.
It’s also possible they do something else.
So I think it’s possible it’s an attempt to use the power of their hegemony before it slips further to shape and direct the world into a shape they believe they can exploit to maintain a dominant position.
Too soon to tell. Also not sure what their plan is and what success means there.
It’s quite possible they intend to do the whole small yard, high fence thing they’ve been pushing with Democrats for a long time but really kick it into gear. This has the benefit of crashing quality of life and increasing expenses for the working class which increases their desperation and the potential for exploitation of enlarged underclasses of people who’ve slipped under from all of this and are only barely not drowning.
It would also involve (attempting) reshoring from China, beating corporations until they comply like with Russia, allowing a few carve-outs (as with Russia), then stoking a war over Taiwan, using the resulting propaganda storm to force heavy sanctions and decoupling (with again some carve-outs for valuable corporations that can’t or refuse to pull out right away). That plus the rising reaction in the US and Europe bodes ill for those in the imperial core. What they do next in such a scenario is up for debate. I personally think naked resource grabs like what Trump talks about, just taking Greenland, openly invading/couping nations in Africa and Latin America, completely dropping the mask and seizing as much as they can to pull into their “small yard” behind their high fence and put up as much of a wall around China/Russia and as much of a squeeze on the two of them as they can by using what power they can to deny them as many markets as possible and to maximally disrupt their supply chains (Trump’s talk of taking the Panama canal for instance would be potentially part of the US shoring up its naval control of the world, it has only sea-power not land-power potential so must maximize control of choke-points to dominate and enforce embargoes and sanctions). They’d try to combine this with continued operations to foster terrorism and instability in key regions to block the belt and road as well as resource extraction for China’s manufacturing.
It’s also possible they do something else.
So I think it’s possible it’s an attempt to use the power of their hegemony before it slips further to shape and direct the world into a shape they believe they can exploit to maintain a dominant position.