There is a certain irony in how great powers decline. Rarely do they collapse in fire and fury; more often, they decay from within—caught in the hallucination of invincibility, misreading the global mood, and clinging to outdated tools of dominance. Donald Trump and his renewed calls for protectionism and economic nationalism are not signs of resurgence, but symptoms of imperial fatigue. His vision of America “winning again” is less a strategy and more a nostalgic fantasy, reminiscent of the 1920s, when the United States made similar moves that triggered global backlash, economic ruin, and eventually, the Great Depression.
This time, however, the world isn’t what it was in the 1920s. It is wiser, more decentralised, and less willing to be cowed into submission. The once-unquestionable supremacy of the dollar is being eroded. Alternative power centres have emerged. And the Global South, once a passive recipient of Western diktats, is now a decisive actor. Trump and by extension, America continues to behave as if it can still strong-arm the world. But the game has changed.
Protectionism: The Ghost of America’s Past
In the 1920s, buoyed by post-WWI arrogance and industrial might, the U.S. pursued isolationist economic policies under the illusion of self-sufficiency. Tariffs were raised, foreign goods punished, and American exceptionalism broadcast to the world. The infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, while signed a decade later, was the culmination of this mindset: an ill-conceived economic wall that backfired spectacularly.
Rather than safeguarding American industry, it sparked global trade wars, deepened the Great Depression, and crippled transatlantic economic cooperation. Nations retaliated. Markets shrank. And the myth of American invulnerability was shattered.
A century later, Trump is walking the same road- tariffs, trade wars, supply-chain reshoring, and punitive economic threats. The underlying assumption remains unchanged: that the United States can dictate the terms of global commerce while bearing none of the consequences.
But this is not 1920. And the global economy is no longer unipolar.
The Pakistani Precedent: Buying Loyalty and Losing the Plot
The United States has long operated on a flawed understanding of global alliances: that loyalty can be bought, that aid ensures obedience, and that geopolitical cooperation is a commodity. Nowhere was this more disastrously visible than in its relationship with Pakistan.
For decades, Washington funnelled billions of dollars into Islamabad—first as a Cold War bulwark against the Soviets, then as a supposed ally in the War on Terror. In reality, it was a duplicitous partnership. Pakistan played both sides, harbouring extremists while receiving counterterrorism funds. The U.S. got neither stability in South Asia nor strategic loyalty. What it got was a façade of friendship and a bitter lesson in the limits of transactional diplomacy.
This model of coercive clientelism still animates U.S. foreign policy. Whether through sanctions on Iran, economic coercion of Turkey, blackmailing NATO allies to increase military spending, or banning semiconductor exports to China, the idea is the same: economic might as a weapon.
But nations are no longer willing to be treated as vassals.
The End of Dollar Supremacy: A Strategic Imperative for the Global South
For nearly eight decades, the U.S. dollar has functioned as the central nervous system of global trade and finance. It was not merely a currency, but a geopolitical tool. From SWIFT system blacklisting to sanction regimes, the U.S. dollar gave Washington extraterritorial control over sovereign nations’ decisions.
But that power is waning—and rightly so.
The weaponisation of the dollar in the past two decades has accelerated its decline. Nations like Russia and Iran have been forced to build alternative financial infrastructures. China is promoting the digital yuan. India is settling bilateral trade in rupees. Even EU countries are quietly contemplating de-dollarisation strategies. The BRICS bloc, originally envisioned as a loose economic grouping, is now emerging as a counterweight to Western dominance, with discussions of a shared currency no longer merely theoretical.
This moment demands strategic clarity. Countries like India, China, and Russia must accelerate the process of economic decoupling from American financial infrastructure. That doesn’t mean isolation. It means independence.
Start by minimising dollar reserves to what is strictly necessary. Shift sovereign wealth funds and foreign exchange reserves into gold, yuan, euro, and strategic assets. Close down American retail chains unless there is meaningful local equity participation. Break monopoly supply chains in critical sectors like semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and defence. Build regional trade corridors insulated from Western volatility.
This is not economic retaliation—it is sovereign self-preservation.
The Myth of the Indispensable America
Trump’s worldview, like much of Washington’s bipartisan foreign policy class, rests on the assumption that the world needs America. That without U.S. leadership, there would be chaos. But this myth has worn thin. In fact, what the world has seen is that American intervention often creates chaos, whether in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Syria.
Today, America is not being challenged because others want to destroy its system. It is being challenged because others want to escape it. The imposition of ideology through trade, the interference in internal matters via NGOs and soft power, and the manipulative control of social media narratives are no longer palatable. The rise of regional powers is not a rebellion. It is a rebalancing.
A Multipolar Compact: Beyond the Age of Bullies
History is cyclical. Empires that dominate by force eventually collapse under the weight of their own hubris. The British believed they were civilising the world; they ended up losing their empire to two world wars and independence movements they could not suppress. The Soviet Union believed in ideological expansionism; it fell into economic decay and internal contradictions.
The United States, drunk on its post-Cold War “end of history” fantasy, is now repeating their mistakes.
But this time, there is no need to wait for collapse. The rest of the world can and must walk away. Not in hostility, but in detachment. Not with violence, but with alternatives.
- India must stop hedging and start leading. It is time to co-lead a civilisational realignment.
- China must abandon its silent diplomacy and make its global governance model clearer to the developing world.
- Russia must look beyond the West and cultivate real Eurasian partnerships.
- Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East must unite not under ideology, but under shared interest- economic sovereignty, narrative independence, and cultural dignity.
The Slow Death of a Bully
Bullies do not fall because someone punches them. They fall because people stop fearing them. Because they overplay their hand. Because they believe they are still in control even as the ground beneath their feet crumbles.
Trump’s America is trying to revive an era that no longer exists. He imagines a world where the U.S. can dictate terms, close borders, enforce its will through currency, and be obeyed. But that world has ended.
Protectionism is a policy of the insecure. Sanctions are weapons of the desperate. And dollar diplomacy is the twilight song of an empire losing its grip.
The future is not American. The future is plural. And those who understand this, who invest in building new institutions, new partnerships, and new narratives, will inherit the world that comes next.
Let Trump build walls. The rest of us will build bridges.
