The World After Trump

The discussion centers on how Trump's presidency may have altered the world stage, with potential future scenarios ranging from a new Cold War to a lawless, self-help international system. Hal Brands, professor of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, outlines three possibilities: a U.S.-China power struggle, a world of regional empires, and a descent into global chaos. Brands argues the "American rules-based order" is dead, with China and Russia pushing back against the U.S.-led system. While acknowledging the hypocrisy and coercion inherent in any global order, Brands maintains the U.S.-led order was comparatively beneficial, particularly for smaller states. He favors the Cold War II scenario as the most likely, requiring significant U.S. investment to compete with China while preserving cooperation among democratic nations.