I have written about this before, but it is a topic worth reconsidering. I often listen to podcasts done by Professor Scott Gallaway. Recently he used an analogy that I liked regarding the relationship between Canada and the US. He said that Canada had been in an abusive relationship and decided, however painful, that it had to leave. Just as in personal abusive relationships, the abuser (the USA) got angry and insisted that the abused (Canada) couldn’t leave.

Prior to World War II, economic growth and prosperity were functions of conquest, usually military. With the Bretton Woods Conference that growth and prosperity became functions of cooperation. Let me be clear. It wasn’t necessarily altruism on the part of the US, but it resulted in better economies and better lives for billions of people.

Who benefited most? The USA. Their currency became the reserve currency, they became the leaders of a free world.

I have said repeatedly that humankind’s greatest enemy is ignorance. America has a society that is largely ignorant of world history and that has led to endemic solipsism.[1] Chanting “We’re No. 1!” may be fun but it’s meaningless if you have leaders who are actively destroying everything that made you great. Leaders that have no concept of history or economics and have decided to abandon America’s role as world leader (that controlled roughly ¾ of the world’s economy) and become an international bully and pariah.

The only countries that the Trump Administration has strengthened their relationships with are North Korea, Russia, and maybe Argentina. At what cost? The world’s democracies are turning their backs. Even the Saudis are hedging their bets. The USA has moved from cooperation to coercion. Europe is baffled by this behaviour and so has embraced Mark Carney, not because Canada can replace the USA — it cannot. But because Carney demonstrates the kind of cooperative, reliable leadership that they feel comfortable embracing and because the EU, with Canada, can create a new free trade domain that can span not just a single continent, but which can become global if fostered and nurtured. Australia is signalling that it would consider joining such a consortium.

In a previous post I wrote about Nazi Germany confusing force with power. (see Hubris in Feb 2025). The current US administration, also led by a megalomaniac, is making the same error. The US military can project force to every corner of the globe and cause untold destruction. Projecting power is a political skillset. That skillset is clearly lacking in the current administration. Clearly, a superpower can throw its weight around and insult national leaders and get away with it. Temporarily. If it stops, you may be forgiven. If it doesn’t, eventually erstwhile allies and partners will find other people to deal with. Americans do not believe that the world can get along without them; they are mistaken. World hegemons rise and fall like the ocean tides. Just because America has led the world for all of our living memory does not mean they cannot be replaced. Look at the history of Great Britain. Look at the History of France. Of Spain. Of Portugal. I could go on.

The USA has bumbled its way into eroding its control of roughly ¾ of the world’s economy to allow a corrupt administration to enrich a few American oligarchs. Nature abhors a vacuum and geopolitical systems behave the same way. Who will step into the breach? That is anyone’s guess at this point. Worse still, we may return to an era where various hegemons vie for that privilege as happened in the 1920s and 1930s.

For the time being, the obvious winner is China. Too many people fear that they want to rule the world. They do not. They want to control the world. The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has seen what happened to Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. They have studied the fall of the USSR. There is a better way. Build what the world wants and then addict them to your products.

They are well on their way right now.

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[1] In this context Americans are solipsistic because they believe that only their society is worth and important.