Western hypocrisy once underpinned global stability by constraining power through shared norms, argues the Matias Spektor, Professor of Politics and International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo. That bargain is collapsing as Donald Trump abandons moral justification in favour of blunt, transactional diplomacy. Without even the pretense of principle, weaker states lose leverage and disputes become raw tests of power. Middle powers such as Canada, Germany and Brazil are hedging by diversifying alliances and reducing reliance on Washington. A world without hypocrisy, Spektor warns, is not more honest but more unstable, and harder even for the strong to manage.
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Western hypocrisy once underpinned global stability by constraining power through shared norms, argues the Matias Spektor, Professor of Politics and International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo. That bargain is collapsing as Donald Trump abandons moral justification in favour of blunt, transactional diplomacy. Without even the pretense of principle, weaker states lose leverage and disputes become raw tests of power. Middle powers such as Canada, Germany and Brazil are hedging by diversifying alliances and reducing reliance on Washington. A world without hypocrisy, Spektor warns, is not more honest but more unstable, and harder even for the strong to manage.