Ashraf AboArafe ✍️
In a world that oscillates between power and interest, the United States continues to craft its foreign policy through a meticulous blend of coercion and persuasion — the timeless “carrot and stick” approach. Washington rewards those who orbit within its influence while brandishing threats against those who dare to step out of line. It is a modern reincarnation of the old imperial ethos — the empire that never sleeps, cloaked now in the garb of “democracy” and “human rights.”
Trump – The Blunt Face of American Dominance
Former President Donald Trump stripped away the veil from this political doctrine. During his blunt address at the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit, he boasted that “America is the strongest power on Earth and will remain so,” proudly flaunting the might of the B-52 bombers and the U.S. military’s ability to “crush any threat within minutes.”
Trump went further, showering tiresome praise on the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, in a self-congratulatory spectacle meant to glorify the cult of power and portray the Pentagon as the living emblem of “American greatness.”
Between Coercion and Temptation – The Core of U.S. Policy
The pattern is unmistakable: Washington lures allied regimes with military and financial aid, while punishing others through sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
Amid its strategic rivalry with China and Russia, the U.S. has revived the logic of nuclear deterrence and economic coercion, relying as much on media manipulation and financial instruments as on the hard power of its global military bases — stretching from the Gulf to the South China Sea.
Praising the Secretary of Defense – Glorifying Power, Not Diplomacy
At the same summit, Trump lauded his Secretary of Defense as a “man of strength and order,” underscoring the fact that the military remains the primary instrument of American decision-making. This was not a mere compliment but a political signal: the United States negotiates only from a position of dominance, guided by the unyielding logic of “the stick first, the carrot later.”
The Submissive World Order – Fuel for U.S. Arrogance
Without doubt, the subservience of client regimes and international institutions to U.S. policy remains the main factor behind Trump’s arrogance and his humiliation of the world’s peoples. Each act of global silence becomes a green light for Washington to further its political and moral extortion under the banner of “world leadership.”
In this landscape, American arrogance feeds on weakness — and turns diplomacy into spectacle.
Conclusion
Through a potent mix of military might and economic seduction, the United States seeks to sustain a unipolar order where its word reigns supreme. Yet, beneath this façade of power, the foundations are beginning to erode. The rise of alternative powers advocating multipolarity and equitable partnerships signals that the era of the absolute American stick may soon draw to a close — as new balances of power carve their place on the map of a changing world.
