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What does U.S. collapse mean for future of the world

Like the former Soviet Union in its last throes, the U.S. is now a nation at war with itself — plagued by extreme wealth concentration, stagnant wages, and corporate monopolies

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:10 PM, Satya Sagar

[Former U.S.S.R. President Mikhail Gorbachev (L) and U.S. President Donald Trump. (Image created by Grok)]

He’s not as affable, well-meaning and certainly not at all a truth-seeker of the same kind. In terms of his potential historical impact though US President Donald Trump is destined to become the counterpart of Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

While three decades ago Gorbachev inadvertently set in motion the fall of the mighty Soviet Union and the entire Eastern Bloc through his attempt at ‘Perestroika’, today Trump is collapsing the entire coalition of Western liberal democracies in North America and Europe with his radical 'America First' policies.

This was something bound to happen for the simple reason that the Cold War was sustained by two opposing ideological pillars: the Soviet Union’s promise of socialist equality and the United States’ championing of liberal democracy, free markets, and human rights. After the first pillar crumbled in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall there was really no reason for the second pillar—the U.S.-led model—to exist. What fell in 1989 was really the ‘eastern side’ of the Berlin Wall and now the world is watching the disintegration of its ‘western side’.

Just as the USSR could not survive without the capitalist “other,” the U.S. could not sustain its democratic myth without an external enemy. Both the systems depended on the other for their legitimacy. The USSR’s collapse removed the external pressure that had forced the American democracy to maintain its façade of respect for international laws, principles of justice or promotion of democratic norms and institutions.

For more than half a century, the Cold War was not just a geopolitical struggle but a battle of two different worldviews. The Soviet Union positioned itself as the vanguard of economic equality, workers’ rights, and anti-imperialism, while the U.S. marketed itself as the defender of individual freedoms, free-market capitalism, and human rights.

Without the spectre of communism to justify its excesses — military interventions, corporate oligarchy, surveillance states، the contradictions of the U.S. model became glaring. The two wars against Saddam Hussein in 1991 and 2003 were clear instances of imperial arrogance that violated sovereignty of independent nations, ignored global opinion or rules of war as outlined in the Geneva Conventions.

After the attack on 11 September 2001, the US-led War on Terror became a cover for shedding even the minimum pretence of protecting civil liberties by the entire Western alliance. All the high-minded advocacy of human rights, due process of law or freedom of speech, organization and dissent claimed during the Cold War disappeared as US imperialism found itself unchallenged globally everywhere.

And then, during the 2008 and 2020 financial crises it turned out that the free markets too were not entirely what they were made out to be for so long by U.S. ideologues and propaganda. It was clear that Wall Street’s interests always triumph Main Street’s, as the myth of self-regulating free markets crumbled and the champions of private enterprise used state funds to bail out failing banks and financial institutions.

Finally, the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, demonstrated that American democracy was not immune to authoritarian backsliding on its own home turf. The rise of Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s embrace of election denialism signal a rejection of democratic principles from within by US elites.

The U.S. political system is today paralyzed by hyper-partisanship, where Congress struggles to pass basic legislation and the Supreme Court is viewed as a partisan body. With political polarization at an all-time high, the U.S. is no longer a convincing champion of democracy but a cautionary tale. The Democratic Party, allegedly an alternative to the Republicans, too has failed to deliver meaningful reforms, leaving voters disillusioned with the entire system.

Also Read: A Great Nation? Sorry America, you don’t deserve to be one

And like the former Soviet Union in its last throes, the U.S. is now a nation at war with itself — plagued by extreme wealth concentration, stagnant wages, and corporate monopolies. The American Dream has become a statistical improbability: social mobility is lower than in most of Europe, and healthcare and education are increasingly unaffordable.

The resulting discontent within the US population is being manifested through ‘culture wars’ over race, gender, history, and even basic facts of science. Trust in media, government, and academia has collapsed, leaving no shared foundation for national discourse.

The widespread popularity of conspiracy theories (QAnon, anti-vax movements) shows how deeply the populace has been dumbed down by corporate owned media. Instead of reforming, the U.S. has doubled down on militarism, inequality, and political dysfunction.

Outside the U.S. borders, operating with blinding hubris, Trump has brought about the ‘Berlin Wall’ moment of U.S. imperialism in a dramatic fashion, alienating allies within the Western liberal order to a point where the very continued existence of NATO is in doubt. The split with Europe and the Trump regime in particular seems irreparable at this point.

So, what will the collapse of the ‘only remaining Superpower’ on the planet mean for the future of the globe?

Clearly, with the U.S. model in deep crisis, the world is shifting toward multipolarity where no single ideology dominates and Europe’s social democracy, China’s techno-authoritarianism, and emerging models from the Global South compete for influence.

China, with its mix of state capitalism and authoritarian efficiency could look attractive to many countries in Asia and Africa. However, China’s economic success is difficult to replicate because of its uniqueness as a former communist state that benefited by aligning with the US during the Cold War against the USSR. Also, there are important cultural factors involved in China’s ability to overcome various obstacles to becoming the second biggest economy in the world today.

South Korea, with its deep democratic transformation over the last four decades, offers a better model but again it is too small and too closely linked to the US to become a popular alternative. India is not a model for any country, even within its own neighbourhood, as it struggles with mass poverty and democratic backsliding.

Despite its colonial history and the disasters of the two World Wars it is Europe that probably stands out as a possible vision for the future for many countries interested in both economic progress and preserving democracy.

As a federation of once-warring nations, that has struck a balance between, human freedoms, economic growth and social welfare Europe perhaps offers the most viable path forward– though it will take the world a long time to get there.

What is more likely to emerge from the collapse of U.S. hegemony is a ‘world disorder’ with every nation fighting for its own interests, ignoring the common good, trust or cooperation and perhaps even plunging into regional wars all around. It will take a decade or even more for a new vision or model to rise from the ashes of the two burnt down pillars of the Cold War.

There will be much pain ahead for everyone, everywhere but that is also because of the delusion we have all had that we are now in the year 2025. The truth is the world has slid back a hundred years to 1925 and history is about to repeat itself, not as farce but with even greater force.

[The writer, Satya Sagar, is a journalist and public health worker who can be reached at sagarnama@gmail.com.]

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