THE NEW MANIFEST DESTINY

The Doctrine of Manifest Destiny, born in the United States in the first decades of the 19th century and originally promoted by President Andrew Jackson (1929-1837), established the moral superiority of Americans over other peoples and, therefore, the mission of redeeming the world and expanding freedom, mainly towards the lands of the West and towards the Caribbean and Central America.

It was the quasi-religious justification for undertaking an aggressive territorial expansion, which reached its climax in the war against Mexico (1846-48), through which the United States acquired most of the territory it now has beyond the Mississippi River.

As early as 1823, President James Monroe enunciated his doctrine of “America for the Americans,” through which he rejected the European powers' claims to recover their lost colonies in the new continent (mainly Spain) or to undertake new conquest adventures (France or England).

These ideas and "doctrines" established by the American rulers of the 19th century seemed to have been left behind, especially after the end of the Second World War, when a world order was formed based on Public International Law. Its main objective was to avoid new wars of aggression, and its main instrument was the United Nations Organization.

However, the great powers, especially those that comprise the UN Security Council, never felt constrained by this new international order that emerged from the Second World War. When they felt like it, they undertook military action against other countries, without the approval of the other great powers. For example, the USSR in Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968; the United States in the Dominican Republic in 1965, and Panama in 1989.

Now the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has started a whole campaign for Canadians to “voluntarily” join as the 51st state of the American Union; to “buy” the island of Greenland from the kingdom of Denmark (something that Trump had already tried during his first presidential term, and which was rejected by Denmark); and to retake the Panama Canal, which through the Torrijos-Carter treaties of 1977 established a joint United States-Panama administration, after the Americans had control of the Canal since its inauguration in 1914, until it passed into the hands of Panama in 1999.

Why is Trump relaunching 19th-century American expansionism, as a kind of New Manifest Destiny?

There are several reasons for internal and external order.

Internal Reasons

Trump's victory in the presidential election, even beating the Democratic Party candidate, Kamala Harris, in the popular vote, coupled with the Republican Party's victory in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, and most of the governorships, has been considered by Trump and his inner circle as a mandate to make "America Great Again."

That means that American hegemony in the world should not be questioned; and that the will of the United States cannot be doubted; therefore, whatever America's ambitions may be, they must be pursued to their logical conclusion.

On the other hand, Trump knows that he will not be able to fully fulfill many of his campaign promises, such as completely pacifying the Middle East; achieving a quick agreement between Russia and Ukraine; deporting the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States; eliminating the epidemic of deaths from fentanyl overdoses; permanently reducing inflation; getting most of the American manufacturing companies that have established their factories in other countries to return; etc.

Trump may be able to advance many of these policies, but he is not sure that he will achieve what he has promised; therefore, one way to keep his social base of support energized and focused on big goals is to reopen that ambition that characterized Americans during the first two centuries of their independence, which is the conquest of new frontiers; whether through “purchases” of land, “voluntary annexations,” “cessions” or even war. Hence Trump's proposal for a "space" military force or to take advantage of the natural resources of protected areas within the United States or the Arctic.

External Reasons

Trump and his advisors have correctly considered that at this moment the Canadian government is very weak, divided, and therefore vulnerable (Justin Trudeau's government is about to fall), which opens the possibility of starting this media war to "invite" Canadians to join the United States.

Trump has supporters and followers in Canada who are willing to follow this narrative, as far as it goes, and although it seems very difficult for this Canadian annexation to the United States can take place, Trump is willing to try, because as the saying goes, "there is no worse fight than the one that is not fought."

Trump also knows that Keir Starmer's government in the United Kingdom is very weak and is, in fact, seeking a free trade agreement with the United States after Britain has left the European Union. Therefore, he will do little or nothing to help Canada, which formally remains part of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

In the case of Greenland, which depends on Denmark, Trump knows perfectly well that if he decided to take Greenland by force, there would be no way for Denmark to prevent it. But that would mean the end of NATO since one country in the organization would be attacking another NATO country.

In that sense, the two main powers of the European Union, to which Denmark also belongs, namely France and Germany, find themselves in one of the most vulnerable historical moments in the last 60 years, given that the governments of Macron and Scholz are in political crisis, the former being unable to form a cabinet supported by the National Assembly, which can approve a budget; and the second, facing general elections in February, with the very high possibility of losing them.

The European Union has not expressed the slightest complaint to Trump for his gross intentions to buy or annex Greenland, which clearly reflects the European dependence on the United States in military, political, and even economic matters, so Trump can make these grotesque proposals with impunity, without the Europeans raising their voice in any way.

And in the Panamanian case, Trump is brandishing childish and false pretexts (high tariffs for US-flagged ships or the alleged presence of "Chinese soldiers" in the Canal), to launch his threat to recover it.

Latin America is divided between progressive and pro-American governments, so there is no united position to diplomatically confront aggression from the United States such as the one it proposes against Panama; so much so that so far the only leader who has even half-heartedly given her support to Panama was Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who also faces serious threats from Trump, such as his promise to declare drug cartels terrorist organizations, which would give him the possibility of taking military action against them on Mexican territory.

In short, Trump does not care about the international order, international organizations (he has already announced that he will withdraw from the World Health Organization), or Public International Law.

In this, he follows in the footsteps of his mentor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for the crime of genocide, who has demonstrated his total rejection of international laws, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as ethnic cleansing of the population in those territories; as well as against Lebanese and Syrians, without suffering any consequences for his actions.

Hence, Trump feels emboldened to carry out his expansionist policies, without caring about destroying what little remains of the rules of the international order that emerged from the Second World War and the post-Cold War.

Trump knows that he has no rivals who can oppose him if he decides to annex Greenland or the Panama Canal, and in the Canadian case, he hopes that the weakness of his government can open an opportunity for him to subordinate Canada (even more) to the dictates of his imperial presidency.