When the First World Power Makes the International Order Vacilate: The Law of the Strongest Against the Hope of a World Regulated by Law, Human Rights and a Reformed UN

Since his return to the United States presidency in January 2025, Donald J. Trump initiated a radical transformation of US foreign policybreaking brutally with the principles of multilateralism, international law and institutional cooperation that have structured international relations since 1945.

Through a series of spectacular decisions: withdrawal of treaties, marginalization of international institutions, pressure on allies, unilateral interventions, Trump's second mandate introduced a new era, where the law of the strongest supplants the common rules. But this drift, which sidates the whole world, also obliges us to think of an alternative If the international community were to commit itself to this logic of domination, building a world order based on law, human rights, and a reformed and strengthened United Nations ?

Tackling multilateralism: Trump versus post-war architecture

Harnessing international institutions

The rupture is frontal. In the first months of his second term, Donald Trump continued and intensified his strategy of disengagement from multilateral institutions. The United States has withdrawn or frozen its participation in several United Nations programmes, continuing the momentum that began from its first term with the abandonment of the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization. This gradual withdrawal is accompanied by a disregard for the role of the United NationsTrump challenges legitimacy, accusing the organization of being ineffective, corrupt and hostile to American interests.

The novelty, however, lies in the desire to create alternative structures, led by the United States and its ideological allies, outside the rules of international law. This approach undermines the credibility of the United Nations, weakens global cooperation and leaves a dangerous normative vacuum.

Rejection of international law

This offensive against multilateralism is accompanied by a refusal to recognize the superiority of international law over national interests, a position that weakens decades of diplomacy based on negotiation, arbitration and compliance with collective commitments. By marginalizing the International Court of Justice, refusing to ratify or comply with binding decisions of UN bodies, Trump reintroduces a pre-UN logic, where power decides, not right.

A transactional and unilateral foreign policy

Diplomacy through pressure

Trump raised economic and tariff threat as a central diplomatic strategy. It has imposed or threatened to impose sanctions on traditional partners, including European ones, as a means of exerting pressure to obtain strategic concessions (notably in the Greenland case, where it has conditioned the lifting of taxes on increased strategic cooperation).

This approach is changing diplomacy in a series of commercial transactionswhere international relations are no longer based on mutual trust or common values, but on the balance of power and immediate interest.

The militarization of foreign policy

Militaryly, Trump adopted a posture more aggressive, more unpredictable, and often unilateral. He allowed targeted strikes against adversaries judged « harmful »enhanced military presence in strategic areas (such as the Persian Gulf or Venezuela), and demonstrated willingness to bypass Congress to conduct armed operations, particularly on the pretext of combating terrorism or defending American interests.

This militarization of diplomacy increases international tensions, feeds regional instability, and feeds a world arms race, especially among the intermediate powers tempted to follow the American example.

Deconstruction of traditional alliances

Distrust of Europe and NATO

One of the most destabilizing aspects of Trump's second mandate is his implicit rejection of historical alliances. NATO, once a pillar of transatlantic security, is regularly criticized, weakened or even threatened with withdrawal. Confidence between the US and its European partners has eroded, notably as a result of Greenland's attempts to acquire Greenland, trade pressures and scornful statements about the EU.

The alliance according to the momentary interest

Trump redefines the concept of ally: it is no longer a faithful partner with whom to share values, but a useful accomplice as long as he serves American goals. This assumed cynicism pushes some countries to reconsider their strategic and to consider an autonomous rearmament policyenhancing the fragmentation of the global security system.

Africa and the global South facing a disorderly world

Silent victims of a new brutal order

African countries are facing the full impact of this strategic shift. As weak or medium-sized powers, without major military or economic leverage, they become the collateral victims of a world delivered to the law of the strongest. The decline in funding for health, education and development aid, combined with the increase in peripheral conflicts and secondary sanctions, weakens their real sovereignty and diplomatic flexibility.

The risk of imitation by other regional powers

The American posture opens the way for a Strategic disinhibition for other actors (Russia, Turkey, China, Iran), who could replicating Trump's strategy trying to broaden their sphere of influence through coercion. Africa, fragmented and poorly protected, risks becoming an indirect confrontation or renewed predation.

Counter-model: What if power served the right?

Power in the Service of International Justice

In the face of this drift, there is another vision of the world: a power used not to dominate, but to guarantee the universality of law, the protection of peoples and respect for borders. This paradigm reversal assumes that the great powers, starting with the United States, are putting their influence on for an equitable international order, where the principles of the UN Charter are not optional, but binding.

A strengthened United Nations with enforcement mechanisms

It becomes urgent to consider a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, so that they are no longer merely a moral forum, but an institution with effective enforcement. Among the proposals:

• Termination of the veto in the Security Council on cases of serious human rights violations;
• Creation of a « United Nations executive body » to implement the decisions of the International Court of Justice;
• Strengthening the role of the International Criminal Court, with universalization of its jurisdiction;
• Establishment of an international mechanism to protect threatened democracies.

A global South driving the refoundation

The countries of the South, and particularly those of Africa, must take the initiative of this recasting. Not in opposition to the West, but as demanding actors a more inclusive, just and democratic world order. The AU, regional alliances, and Southern coalitions can influence UN debates, propose resolutions, and building global public opinion for international law.

Resisting cynicism, rebuilding hope

Donald Trump's second mandate acts as a brutal catalyst for the crisis of the international system. It reveals the fragility of existing institutions, the exhaustion of classical multilateralism, and the temptation to return to brutally powerful diplomacy. But this shock can also be the opportunity of a collective burst. A world governed by law is not a utopia: it is a necessity for peace, justice and common survival.

It is the responsibility of nations, peoples, diplomats, intellectuals and civil society organizations to resist the temptation of retreat, indifference or submission, and to build a global governance based on rule, transparency, accountability and human dignity.

History teaches us that the great ruptures generate great refoundations. It's time to write next.