The end of Pax Americana? - from The Knowledge - 14.02.25
- Feb 16
- 3 min read
Volodymyr Zelensky will meet JD Vance in Munich today for talks on how to end the war in Ukraine. The US vice president told The Wall Street Journal that Moscow could face harsher sanctions if Vladimir Putin fails to agree to a peace deal that guarantees Ukraine’s “sovereign independence”, adding that sending American troops to Ukraine is “still on the table”.
British goods could be hit with tariffs of up to 21% on exports to the US after Donald Trump pledged to impose levies on “every country” with which America has a trade deficit. Trump’s senior trade counsellor, Peter Navarro, didn’t mention the UK specifically, but said the EU’s VAT regime, which is essentially the same as Britain’s, was the “poster child” for unfair trade.
Donald Trump’s overture to Vladimir Putin on Ukraine has the “terrifying echo of the betrayal of Czechoslovakia in 1938”, says Anthony Beevor in Engelsberg Ideas. Before the negotiations have even begun, and without garnering any concessions from Moscow, the US president has already ruled out Ukraine joining Nato and effectively conceded the loss of all the territory seized by Russia since 2014. He appears determined to ignore Allied leaders, even Nato, splitting the West and “casting European defence adrift”.
In Trump’s Washington, there is no mention of the unprovoked invasion and the consequent war crimes, including deliberate attacks on civilians, looting, rape, “random torture of prisoners” including castrations, and the kidnapping of Ukrainian children for “brainwashing as Russians”. To draw a veil over such horrors is not realpolitik. It is the most flagrant example of “might is right” since World War Two.
Atlanticists on both sides of the ocean must surely now admit that the foremost alliance of the past century is cooked, says Gerard Baker in The Times. What we’re starting to see is Trump’s wider strategic thinking. He views foreign relations through a “great power framework” in which America keeps the peace not through alliances but by “sheer competing muscle”.
The soft power of foreign aid is a luxury a single superpower can afford, goes this thinking, but in today’s multipolar great power competition it’s an indulgence. China and Russia have advanced by focusing narrowly on their self-interest, so why should the US go on being ripped off by its allies? It’s an unsentimental approach, but hardly unprecedented.
As Lord Palmerston said of Britain in the 19th century: “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”
Trump forcing Europe to defend itself may end up making war more likely, says Thomas Fazi in UnHerd. Not because it leaves the continent vulnerable, but because it will embolden European hawks, particularly those in Poland, Estonia and Lithuania who fear Russia most. At present, it’s laughable to say Moscow poses an existential threat to Europe. If Putin starts to see a major military build-up on his border, not so much.
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Teeth blackening is back, says Charisse Kenion in Dazed. The ancient tradition, once popular in China, Vietnam and Japan, was thought to protect people against supernatural entities at a time when white teeth were associated with ghostliness. The Japanese method involved a mix of iron filings and vinegar; the Vietnamese used ant wing nectar powder and charcoal.
The gnarly gnashers went out of style in the 20th century, but they’re now having a “renaissance” in America. The Vietnamese-American R&B singer Sailorr and the Japanese-American rapper Molly Santana have taken to wearing black grills – a decorative accessory that covers your teeth – so they can sport the look without having to do anything too dentally gross.
Inside politics.
One problem with Labour’s new focus on growth is that voters don’t really care about it, says Stephen Bush in the FT. Recent polling by More in Common shows that only 41% of people think economic growth is “good for people like me”, with 39% saying it “makes no difference”, 16% saying they don’t know and a particularly gloomy 4% thinking it would actually be “bad”.
Obviously the naysayers are wrong – growth benefits everyone. But politically, their indifference makes it rather harder to pursue a growth-at-all-costs strategy.
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