The Trump administration's announcement of territorial expansion ambitions (Panama Canal, Greenland, Gaza) represents not a reassertion of American confidence but rather bullying behavior toward smaller countries and a dangerous legitimization of nationalism-based territorial conquest at a time when Russia, China, and Israel are already normalizing similar aggression, thereby further eroding the post-WWII international order based on state sovereignty.

causalpending

Speaker

Ben Rhodes

Evidence Quote

picking on Panama and Denmark... it does not feel like kind of a reassertion of American confidence these are smaller countries kind of feels like a bully on the schoolyard looking for someone small to beat up... this is a US president in word and deed kind of ignoring the principle of State sovereignty... at a time when there's already been a normalization of a return to nationalism based Conquest

Source

Ben Rhodes: The Warren and Anita Manshel Lecture in American Foreign PolicyWeatherhead Center for International Affairs
Created: 8/11/2026, 7:23:32 AM

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