The Business Times
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The world is hedging its bets

We will enter an age of terrible instability if new security, economic and political structures don’t arise before the old ones are hollowed out

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    • Trump has given the world a glimpse of a future in which the US joins the ranks of the revisionist powers seeking to redraw the map through threats and force.
    • Trump has given the world a glimpse of a future in which the US joins the ranks of the revisionist powers seeking to redraw the map through threats and force. PHOTO: PIXABAY

    Hal Brands

    Published Thu, Jan 22, 2026 · 01:17 PM

    THERE are moments when you can feel the geopolitical tectonics shifting below your feet. Such a moment is upon us as the second year of US President Donald Trump’s term begins.

    The world that Trump inherited was based, to a remarkable degree, on US commitment and power. That power surely persists one year later.

    But as we have seen at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, global confidence in US leadership is ebbing at an increasing rate.

    United StatesTrump administrationGeopoliticsgeoeconomicsNuclear proliferationWorld Economic Forum

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