Once more the world enters the swing of chaos and tension as the fate of global peace falls into the hands of one man. Foreign policy has been taken a storm ever since the reelection of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. Out of the different approaches his administration has taken, the ones that stand out the most come from recent times. The executives have expressed interest in Greenland as target of territorial accretion while Cuba faces pressures of collapse and economic danger.
The eyes of the red, white and blue political power stare at the north and south of the American continent. Two opposite regions face threats that carry immense weight. Seeing as how the Maduro extraction from Venezuela was handled, with no regard for diplomatic procedures, these two places cannot simply consider the Trump’s words as empty threats.
“I think the US operation in Venezuela will set a bad precedent for other countries in the future. While getting Maduro out seems like a good thing, considering how corrupt he is, the problems in Venezuela go way deeper than Maduro and removing him does not solve anything permanently. I also thing the act of the US entering into other countries and taking their leaders will make potential similar operations from other countries more likely,” junior Alexander Lopez said.
Venezuela losing its dictator has played a direct role in America’s changing relationship with Cuba. The island was always heavily dependent on Venezuela’s oil, but now that the U.S. controls the general management of the country,Trump can threaten to cut off the oil trade to Cuba. Similarly, the Obama administration tried to establish ties with them, but were cut off and reverted by Trump’s administration to further isolate Cuba from American activities.
Sanctions on trade with Cuba has led to inflation skyrocketing, further enforced limitations and a Cuban economy deeper down in its despair. The president has been hinting at this since his first election, where he coincidently left it in the air the idea of arctic acquisition. It is highly possible both present situations with Greenland and Cuba were planned ahead, even before the 2020 election.
“I think the nice way of putting this and the way that his government has communicated his interest in Greenland, is that he’s interested in Greenland because it would help national security. Now I disagree. I think that’s a lie, I think he’s interested in Greenland because of the minerals oil and natural resource resources that it has and the fact that he’s saying that it’s for national security is a lie because why would he want to get closer to Russia through Greenland by controlling the north when we already have a piece of land in the Arctic Ocean…in Alaska,” junior Darek Rodriguez said.
During the late summer of 2019, president Trump remarked that he would like purchase Greenland. Now, he strongly pushes the agenda of making Greenland an asset due to its untapped resources and geographical benefits. Greenland has one of the world’s largest mineral and natural resource reserves, making it a target for the global superpowers.
The current public statements backing this proposal is the threat of China and Russia. China has already begun a trading program with Greenland while the threat of Russia being a neighbor looms over the president’s head. By creating an apparent necessity and inciting fear, political leaders can sway the people of their nation into blindly accepting what is being done. The prime minister of Denmark is adamantly against the idea, including in his argument that Greenland belongs to Greenland: a sovereign nation of people who have their own distinct culture and way of life.
“I think prior to the election and during the election, it was more of a 50-50 in the country as a whole. But as his presidency went on, I think many people started realizing that what he said were all lies and he intended to deceive them. For example, many Latinos supported Donald Trump because they thought that he would somehow help them in a way and nowadays, they are regretting this since he’s deporting their communities and violating their community’s rights. Now everyone is scared of ICE since they’re using force, killing people and violating their human rights with the excuse that it’s a federal proceeding. I think everyone nowadays has seen that his ambitions are very dangerous,” junior Mateo Schiffer said.
The aggressive approaches to relations with Greenland and Cuba make nations fear the very foundation of diplomatic order. The line between ambition and laws of sovereignty is dangerously blurred as Trump threatens to act by accordance of his own limitations. Now, the world is left to manage America’s outward disruption, a reflection of the current state of American ideology, alienation and society projected onto the world.
“The American ideology has grown increasingly polarized in the past few decades. Political parties have become the most dividing force in the country and this is reflected through the unpredictable shifts in America’s global influence. One day Joe Biden is strengthening NATO ties, the next Donald Trump is calling for defection. This polarization also causes more extreme moves taken by administrations to undo that of the previous party. Trump’s recent radical ambitions are part of the increasing flow of the nation’s political radicalization, with the country becoming significantly more contrarian depending on the party in power,” junior Andres Calvo said.
