How US foreign policy traded soft power for military raids and oil seizures

Kua Kia Soong

The United States was until recently celebrated by NGOs in the Global South as the apparent guardian of democracy and human rights.

This postwar initiator of the international rules-based order has pivoted so dramatically that even adventure-novel villains are scratching their helmets.

Under the spell of President Donald Trump, America’s once carefully crafted brand now resembles the ugliest Broadway revival of Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Forget subtlety. The mantle of democratic moral high ground has apparently been replaced with camouflage fatigues, which is just another way of saying actual piracy, real president-snatching and oil tankers now count as ‘friendly merchandise’. 

Kidnapping the president of a sovereign state

In a bold reinterpretation of ‘law enforcement abroad’, US special forces conducted a surprise raid on Caracas and extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. They then whisked them off to New York to face charges. This was done without prior authorisation from Congress or a resolution from the United Nations. 

This would have been an obscure subplot in a daytime courtroom drama –except someone forgot to tell the US administration that sovereign heads of state generally don’t get abducted by foreign militaries and flown halfway across the globe like missing luggage. 

The great tanker roundup

Meanwhile, US forces have been enthusiastically commandeering oil tankers with the grace of a toddler at a tea party: complete surprise, some spills and no idea whose cookies (or barrels of crude) they are.

A Russian-flagged tanker once known as Bella 1 has been seized on the high seas, prompting official complaints from Moscow that this is not exactly how international maritime law works outside fantasy board games. 

It turns out that blasting a tweet about “we just commandeered this very large tanker” and then actually boarding the tanker is not what traditional commentators mean by ‘discreet diplomacy’.

The US insists these seizures are perfectly legal under sanctions enforcement – but critics have politely asked for articles of international law that might back that up. 

Murder on the high seas

Another chapter in this grotesque drama is a naval campaign by the US government involving air and sea strikes on small vessels accused of drug trafficking – based on allegations with undisclosed or minimal publicly verified evidence.

Independent observers note that whoever is piloting this entire operation appears to confuse the right to life with a permission slip to float unexploded ordnance abroad.

Unsurprisingly, neighbouring countries have raised eyebrows – and possibly some formal protests. 

Whether these are cartel skiffs or fishing boats remains the sort of question that might be settled once forensic teams finish rummaging through international maritime law textbooks. Or find a polite, diplomatic way to ask what’s going on. 

Discreet charm lost forever

Once upon a time, the US excelled at being just nice enough in its human rights promotional posture that NGOs in Africa, Asia and Latin America would clutch their brochures and nod.

Now kidnapping foreign presidents is apparently a Monday morning task.

Seizing oil tankers anywhere on the open sea is just Tuesday.

Sinking boats without transparent evidence has become the latest administration hobby on Wednesday.

And Thursday? Well, that’s the day someone announces the global withdrawal from scores of international organisations because ‘collaboration is so yesterday!’

This is not the discreet charm our NGOs were signed up for. But hey, who needs soft power when you have flash bangs, boarding parties and tweets demanding unconditional surrender of all oil barrels by sundown?

After all, nothing says international prestige quite like being labelled a pirate by two nuclear powers and a dozen maritime unions.

Bravo, US foreign policy. Bravo.

Kua Kia Soong, a former MP, is the director of human rights group Suaram.

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