Is the US's national sovereignty violation of Venezuela and other nations par for the course?

• In Event: Genocide and Imperialism

Abstract

The recent events in which the US state has acted belligerently and hostilely towards other nations such as Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, and Iran and its continued disregard of international law, its unwavering support and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, its continued proxy war against Russia (to bleed it and extend US power), and its attempt at reasserting its dominance in the Americas has in many cases generated explanations that located the Trump administration as the root cause. This paper asks whether this belligerence and hostility are the result of the Trump administration or of a trajectory set in motion from the inception of the US state. How do we reconcile this dilemma? On the one hand, the US state developed from a colonial settler state that engaged in a genocide against the indigenous people of the Americas, operated a system of slavery, and engaged in a Westward expansion and a non-contiguous expansion of countries as part of an effort to establish global dominance. The US as a belligerent state is not just some historical fact; this violence and coercion appear to be its institutional character trait. To address this question more substantively, we will locate the Trump administration within this trajectory to account for the changes and nuances that suggest either continuity or divergence. One possible explanation for a more belligerent state is that it is in response to its declining global position, leading it to rely on its military might.

Author

• Vince Montes, Northeastern University