The U.S. army operation in Venezuela and seize of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026, crowned off months of army buildup and focused moves within the Caribbean Sea. It fulfills President Donald Trump’s declare to say authoritative regulate over the Western Hemisphere, articulated in his management’s 2025 Nationwide Safety Technique.
Some nationwide safety mavens say U.S. army motion in Venezuela – taken with out U.S. congressional approval or U.N. Safety Council authorization – is prohibited. It’s going to violate home and global legislation.
The Venezuela assault represents the clearest instance all the way through Trump’s 2d presidency of the shift from conventional American values of democratic freedom and the rules-based global order to an The us exerting unilateral energy founded purely on perceived financial pursuits and armed forces may. Autocratic leaders are unconstrained by way of legislation and stability of energy, the use of pressure to impose their will on others.
So, what does this transition from a liberal The us on the planet to an autocratic U.S. seem like? After many years of running across the world on democracy and peace-building, I see 3 interrelated spaces of long-standing U.S. overseas coverage engagement being unraveled.
1. Peace and struggle prevention
The Trump management’s movements in Venezuela mirror its “peace through strength” method to global family members, which emphasizes army energy. The movements additionally apply the emphasis the management puts on financial force and wins as a deterrent to struggle and a cudgel for peace.
This means contrasts with many years of diplomatic efforts to construct peace processes that ultimate.
International coverage mavens indicate that the Trump management’s emphasis on trade deal-making in its habits of overseas family members, inquisitive about bargaining between positions, misses the purpose of peacemaking, which is to deal with underlying pursuits shared by way of events and construct the consider required to take on the drivers of struggle.
Trump’s focal point on deal-making additionally counters the sector’s conventional reliance at the U.S. as a decent dealer and a competent financial spouse that helps unfastened business. Trump made it transparent that U.S. pastime in oil is a key rationale for the Venezuela assault.
This symbol from video posted on Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi’s X account displays an oil tanker being seized by way of U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela on Dec. 10, 2025.
U.S. Legal professional Normal’s Place of job/X by means of AP
Ahead of Venezuela, the boundaries of the Trump management’s means had been already appearing within the world conflicts Trump claims to have halted. That’s obvious in ongoing violence between Thailand and Cambodia and in ceasefire violations within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Additionally, U.S. experience and sources for sustainable peacemaking and fighting struggle are long past.
All the Bureau of Warfare Stabilization Operations within the U.S. Division of State used to be dismantled in Might 2025, whilst investment for struggle prevention and key peace techniques like Ladies, Peace and Safety used to be reduce.
Trump’s unilateral army motion towards Venezuela belie an original dedication to sustainable peace.
Whilst it’s too quickly to expect Venezuela’s long run underneath U.S. regulate, the Trump management’s means is prone to power extra world struggle and violence in 2026, as main powers start to perceive the other guidelines and learn how to play the brand new sport.
2. Democracy and human rights
Because the Nineteen Eighties, U.S. nationwide safety methods have included sides of democracy promotion and human rights as U.S. values.
Trump has now not highlighted human rights and democracy as rationales for taking pictures Maduro. And, up to now, the management has rejected claims to the Venezuelan management by way of opposition chief María Corina Machado and Edmundo González, extensively thought to be the reputable winner of the 2024 presidential election.
A lot of the U.S. overseas coverage to construct democracy globally and advertise human rights used to be delivered via overseas help, price over US$3 billion in 2024. The Trump management reduce that by way of just about 75% in 2025.
Those budget sought to advertise honest elections, supporting civil societies and unfastened media globally. They had been additionally supposed to lend a hand permit unbiased and corruption-free judiciaries in many nations, together with Venezuela.
Since 1998, for instance, the U.S. has funded 85% of the once a year $10 million funds of the U.N Voluntary Fund for Sufferers of Torture. The fund, now imperiled, is helping survivors get well from torture within the U.S. and world wide.
The congressionally mandated annual Human Rights Document issued by way of the State Division in August signaled the Trump management’s intent to undermine key human rights responsibilities of overseas governments.
Alternatively, the White Space has used price lists, sanctions and armed forces moves to punish nations on purported human rights-related grounds, similar to in Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa. Similarly regarding to democracy defenders is its rhetoric chastising Eu democracies and obvious willingness to lift political events in Europe that reject human rights.
3. World cooperation
A significant intention of U.S. overseas coverage has historically been to counter threats to The us’s safety that require cooperation with different governments.
However the Trump management is ignoring or denying many transnational threats. They come with terrorism, nuclear proliferation, pandemics, new applied sciences and local weather trade.
Additionally, the equipment that The us helped construct to take on shared world threats, like global legislation and multilateral organizations such because the United International locations, were disparaged and undermined.
Even sooner than the U.S. assault on Venezuela, students had been caution of the cave in of the global norm, embedded within the U.N. Constitution, that prohibits using pressure by way of one sovereign nation towards every other, aside from in particular circumstances of self-defense.
Early in 2025, Trump signaled an finish to a lot of U.S. multilateral engagement, pulling the rustic out of many global our bodies, agendas and treaties.
Venezuelans rip an American flag in part all the way through a protest in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2026.
AP Photograph/Ariana Cubillos
The management proposed getting rid of its contributions to U.N. companies just like the fund for kids. Additionally it is allocating simplest $300 million this 12 months to the U.N., which is ready one-fifth of the club dues it owes the group by way of legislation. A looming budgetary disaster has now fed on this sole international deliberation frame.
In the meantime, the Trump management says migration and drug trafficking, together with from Venezuela, pose the best safety threats. Its answers – proceeding U.S. financial and armed forces may within the Americas – forget about shared demanding situations like corruption and human trafficking that power those threats and likewise undermine U.S. financial safety.
There may be proof that the Trump management is not just pushing aside global legislation and taking flight from The us’s long-standing admire for global cooperation, but it surely’s additionally in the hunt for to reshape coverage in its personal symbol and punish the ones it disagrees with.
As an example, its name to reframe world refugee protections – to undermine the main that prohibits a go back of other people to a rustic the place they might be persecuted – would regulate decades-old global and U.S. home legislation. The Trump management has already dismantled a lot of the U.S. refugee program, decreasing the cap for 2025 to ancient ranges.
Even for many who paintings in global establishments, there is also a value to pay for an intolerant The us. For example, the Trump management has economically sanctioned many judges and prosecutors of the World Felony Court docket for his or her paintings.
And the management has threatened extra sanctions until the court docket guarantees to not prosecute Trump – a extra salient problem now with the plain U.S. aggression towards Venezuela, which is a celebration to the World Felony Court docket.
Some democracy mavens concern that the U.S. army motion in Venezuela now not simplest undermines global legislation, but it surely might also serve to make stronger Trump’s venture to undo the guideline of legislation and democracy at house.
