In the second chapter, Jeff Rathke will pick up the question what the dramatic upheavals in domestic politics mean for the US future role in the world. A world with minimal US obligations and unlimited freedom of action is their objective. What we are currently experiencing in Washington, he argues, is the deconstruction of the American world order with lasting effects on the alliance systems, the international order and the rule of law. Trump’s instinct is to preserve aspects of American power developed in the post-Cold War era, such as economic sanctions, and couple them with tariffs and the threat of trade conflict to magnify the United States’ might. Trump does not consider the Westphalian principle of inviolability of borders to be a constraint on American aggrandizement, advocating persistently for expansionism in some cases (his designs on Greenland being the best example), and more halfheartedly in other cases (the desire for Canada to become the “51st state” or to retake possession of the Panama Canal). The potential for destroying several generations’ worth of international ties with unforeseeable consequences is plain to see, as is the precedent it would set for other great powers and regional hegemons to behave similarly. The result will be a world with minimal US obligations and unlimited freedom of action for the great powers.