USA’s Hegemonic Behaviour
At the end of the Cold War, America had unprecedented global dominance. The world was genuinely at its disposal – economically, militarily, culturally. And what did it do? It tried to conquer more, control more, weaponize more. Iraq, Libya, regime change operations, financial sanctions as coercion, military bases everywhere.
And now? USA is reduced to claiming a peace treaty between Cambodia and Thailand as a major diplomatic achievement. That is not superpower activity. That is scrambling for relevance.
It imposed sanctions on India by imposing 50% tariff and is now waiting for a favourable deal for last 4 months with no result. Negotiators talk sometimes but no result. India refused to budge. It is stated that USA is changing goal post in every talk.
Now President Trump has threatened to impose extra tariff on rice import from India. during a White House meeting on December 9, 2025, accusing India of dumping cheap rice that harms US farmers. He made these remarks while announcing a $12 billion aid package for American farmers, funded partly by existing tariff revenues. India exported about $392 million worth of rice to the US in FY2025, representing just 3-5% of its global rice exports, with basmati rice valued at $337 million in 2024-25.
Russia is supposed to be isolated after Ukraine war. Russia is dictating the terms of ending the war which have been accepted by USA. Russian President visited India on 6 December 2025 and is now hosting Indonesian Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Moscow, who has invited President Putin to visit Indonesia cracking a joke “Because India should not be the only country you travel to.” Joke was on USA who had hoped to isolate Russia. An old hegemony is now a matter of jokes.
The bygone Era of Empires
What actual hegemonic countries like USA have done in the past seven decades:
Military expansion and bases: USA as also the UK and Soviets established military bases globally, maintained large standing armies abroad, and used military force to secure resources and trade routes.
Currency imposition: They forced or coerced others to use their currency for trade, creating dependence.
Debt colonization: They provided loans with conditions that gave them control over debtor nations’ policies and resources.
Resource extraction: They structured trade to extract raw materials cheaply and sell finished goods at premium prices.
Regime change operations: They overthrew governments that didn’t align with their interests.
Unequal treaties: They imposed trade agreements heavily favoring themselves.
Cultural/ideological domination: They pushed their systems as universal models everyone must adopt.
Where are UK and Soviets? Money overspent. Currency devalued. Both had to seek external debts to improve economy. USA may well be on way to that destination if it does not take corrective steps to manage its #38 trillion debt. But so far it doesn’t.
False vanity of USA
USA is behaving like old landlord or Zamindar who refuses to sell the old cars and let it rot. Landlord is maintaining expensive, obsolete status symbols because selling them would force him to admit the world has changed and their old sources of power are gone.
American military bases scattered around the world are exactly that. Massively expensive vintage infrastructure from a bygone era. This is the age of hypersonic missiles that can strike anywhere in minutes, satellite surveillance, cyber warfare, drones, and EMP technology. Why do you need hundreds of physical bases? You don’t. But admitting that and closing them would be admitting the empire is over.
So they keep maintaining them at enormous cost of hundreds of billions annually. It is not because they provide meaningful strategic advantage anymore, but because shutting them down would be a visible, humiliating acknowledgment of decline.
Intelligence gathering still has value and is relatively inexpensive. But projecting physical military force from fixed bases when adversaries have hypersonic weapons? That’s just painting targets on yourself while draining your treasury.
The zamindar parallel captures something deeper too: those who built wealth and power through old systems can’t psychologically accept that those systems are dead. They’d rather go bankrupt maintaining the illusion than adapt to reality.
Yet it deals with the world as if it is ruling the world. With all it’s military might it is still afraid to engage Venezuela in its neighbourhood. Instead it has chosen to target Venezuelan ships and civilian boats. Obviously the cost of real war is beyond it’s reach.
It boasts of friendships with others like India, again and offers to engage with it. It offers to talk with Europe and engage with Russia to resolve Ukraine war. This is the multipolarity in the eyes of USA.
Fake Multipolarity
What the USA practices isn’t “fake multipolarity”. It’s just hegemony with better public relations exercise. USA talks about “international community” and “rules-based order” while simultaneously:
- Signing treaties during the day, running covert ops at night
- Supplying governments officially while arming militants secretly
- Preaching democracy while engineering coups
- Demanding adherence to international law while exempting itself
(Refer operations in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Venezuela)
That’s not any kind of multipolarity. That’s empire using the language of partnership while practising domination. No wonder it finds itself in vacuum of trust.
Recent notifications from the Trump administration on December 8-10, 2025, detail a proposed $686 million sale for upgrades to Pakistan’s existing F-16 fleet, including Link-16 systems, avionics, and logistical support. It is seen as USA is arming Pakistan to replenish equipments which were destroyed in Operation Sindoor by India in May 2025. That is the Friendship of USA towards India. This is happening when experts from USA are warning that this administration has upturned the policy of friendship towards India adopted since the era of Clinton. It will have consequences not just limited to relationship with India.
The Global Implications
The failure of American pressure tactics against India and Russia creates a demonstration effect that other countries will study carefully. When economic coercion fails so obviously against a country with genuine competitive advantages and strategic independence, it encourages other nations to pursue similar paths toward economic autonomy rather than continued dependence on American-dominated systems.
Countries observing this conflict will note that India’s food security, payment system independence, processing capabilities across multiple industries, and improving domestic inequality metrics provided effective insulation against traditional forms of economic pressure. This becomes a roadmap for other nations seeking to reduce their vulnerability to American policy volatility.
The long-term result may be the acceleration of exactly the trends American foreign policy claims to want to prevent i.e. the emergence of alternative economic systems, reduced reliance on dollar-denominated transactions, and the development of trading relationships that operate outside American influence or control.
When bridges built over decades get destroyed, the damage extends far beyond the immediate relationship. It reshapes global perceptions of American reliability, encourages other countries to pursue strategic independence, and creates generational obstacles to future cooperation precisely when such cooperation becomes most necessary for addressing shared global challenges.
Indonesia will not be the only one. It is not even the first one. Country after country have entered in Free Trade Agreements with India, undeterred by USA. It can keep its tariffs.