A kind of insanity

The US has consistently followed a line which either veers to the right or in a few cases has deviated slightly to the centre. It has not really moved from beyond this meridian. But the path being followed by US President Donald Trump and his team resembles that of a roller coaster. It veers crazily from one direction to the other, with Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and his DOGE team further slashing USAID workers and federal government bureaucrats.

In addition to this, Trump has already ordered a further crackdown on immigrants including students. There have been other moves which leave us wondering. The US pullout from the WHO puts entire countries at peril, including vaccine programmes in Pakistan and other countries around the world. It also puts the US’s own vaccination programme under threat, and there have been other cuts in the limited health provisions the US offers its citizens. The other moves under Trump are also simply from the realm of a horror movie built around fantasy or science fiction. The idea of converting the battered Gaza Strip into some kind of luxury beach resort is just one of these schemes.

The danger lies in the fact that a significant portion of the world is influenced by the US and its behaviour. This is especially true in an environment where there appears to be a global surge to the right. This can be seen clearly in Europe and also in other countries. The ‘hard’ governance of Donald Trump has influenced others, or at least added to the global climate of governance. The notion of tough governance can be interpreted in many different ways. For Pakistan, hard governance should mean a crackdown on lynch mobs who bring blasphemy charges against various people, and also a crackdown on terrorist groups of every kind.

But at the same time, we should note that the strategies followed by Donald Trump will have an impact on Pakistan as well. The closure of USAID means an end to multiple programmes run by the organisation. This includes scholarships for students hoping to continue their studies in the US. It also means aid of all other kinds for projects in various sectors. The situation is a dangerous one and will have an impact globally. The question is whether the US itself will survive the strategies put in place by the man elected by a sizable margin by US citizens.

The issue also brings into question the terrible leadership so often thrown up by democracies. We see this in Pakistan as well, though the alleged manipulation of various elections since the mid-1970s puts in doubt what the real wishes of people may be, or what might have been the scenario if they had been allowed to come to the forefront. However, in the US we can envision months of chaos in the months ahead.

How this will affect US foreign policy is yet to be seen, but we get a glimpse of all that could happen in the ongoing war with Denmark and the island of Greenland, which is an autonomous Danish territory. If we forget about Danish outrages in the past, the fact is that today Denmark is a country which provides a social safety net to its citizens. Greenlanders, meanwhile, say they would much prefer to stay with Denmark rather than be annexed, arguably by military means, by the US.

The problem lies not in some curious whim of Trump alone -though this is a factor which drives other policies. The Arctic, where the solid seas of ice are melting, offers important trade routes, mainly from Europe to Asia. These routes are also being pursued by Russia and China. While the US has a way to collaborate with the Russian government over these matters, the Arctic is a place where future tensions could lead to a huge amount of friction and possibly war.

The world does not need this. The Arctic and its mineral wealth should be something that can be shared by the maximum number of people everywhere, no matter where they live and what they do. We will have to wait and see what unfolds in the coming months. The reality is that everything that happens in the US will also have an impact on the rest of the world.

In some ways, the US will speak so often of human rights and democracy, and set standards by which other countries are judged. Of course, there is a huge part for democracy in the manner in which this procedure is carried out. Certain countries are deemed to be undemocratic or guilty of human rights abuses, while others are given a clean slate simply on the basis of whether or not they support the US.

We now need to see where the world will be pushed next as Trump unleashes his full force. In this chaos, we also need to see where Pakistan and its people will be placed. The future for them is under some doubt as foreign policy changes in Washington and suggestions are made on new restrictions for Pakistanis or Afghans and those of other nationalities entering the country or staying there.

This in itself could create a huge amount of damage for Pakistanis working in the US or attempting to seek immigration to that country. Some have already decided to leave it and look for other options elsewhere in the world. Of course, the world is influenced heavily by the US under the unipolar setup set in place notably since the 1990s and the fall of the Soviet Union. We will watch and see what happens next. The danger is that the viewing will not be a pleasant one in this movie which we fear could turn into a horror flick of the worst possible kind.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyat@hotmail.com