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The toppling and reported capture by incursive American military units of Venezuela's socialist president will send a shiver of dread and alarm around the world. This power grab is unlawful, unprovoked, and regionally and globally destabilising. It overturns international norms, disregards sovereign territorial rights, and potentially creates an anarchic situation inside Venezuela itself.

It is policy crafted from chaos. But this is the world we now live in – the universe as defined by Donald Trump.

An Extraordinary and Dangerous Assertion of Unfettered US Power

The overt assault on Venezuela marks an remarkable, hazardous declaration of unchecked American might and comes in the same week that the President menaced military strikes against a further disliked anti-western regime: that of Iran. It comes after many months of escalating US military, economic and political pressure on Maduro, encompassing deadly naval strikes on boats of alleged drug traffickers.

Trump claims to be acting to prevent illegal narcotics flowing into the US through Venezuelan routes and to cease an alleged influx of “criminal element” migrants. In an repetition of the American incursion into Iraq in 2003, he is also charged with desiring Venezuela’s vast petroleum and natural gas reserves – suspicions reinforced by frequent, unlawful US confiscations of Venezuelan oil tankers.

But Trump’s primary motives seem to be individual hostility aimed at Maduro, and a wish to resurrect the 19th-century Monroe doctrine by establishing a US sphere of influence and dominance throughout the west.

Hemispheric Alarm and Global Repercussions

Regional leaders, such as Colombia’s president, who has clashed with Trump in recent months, greeted the coup with outrage and alarm; not least, perhaps, because they fear they too could become victims of Washington’s aggressive new hegemony. Cuba’s leftwing government has special reason for worry. It depends significantly on Venezuela’s regime for cheap energy and backing in politics and economics.

The US top diplomat has been explicit of his wish to see a change in government in Havana. In Panama, too, levels of concern will be running high. Trump has in the past menaced military action there, over authority over the Panama Canal. Indeed, the alleged apprehension of Maduro brings to mind the 1989 US incursion into Panama and the toppling and arrest of its then dictator.

Autocratic, undemocratic governments around the world will be closely observing Trump’s next steps, as will Washington’s allies in democracy. Iran condemned the coup. It has valid cause to be apprehensive. But Russia’s president may not be totally displeased by the defenestration of his Venezuelan ally.

A Perilous Benchmark for International Disputes

Trump’s unprovoked resort to violence is not so very different from actions in invading Ukraine. Both have illegally attacked a bordering nation and attempted to oust its leadership. For China’s leader, whose forces were last week conducting military exercises against the “separatists” of Taiwan, Trump has just set a precedent he may eventually happily emulate.

Trump’s coup is of great concern to Britain, the EU and democratic Western nations. They ought to, and have to, unequivocally condemn it. It directly challenges the rules and principles of the international order they cherish. The US has yet again disregarded the United Nations and traditional methods of addressing disputes between nations. And it is proceeding with apparently scant regard for the subsequent events in Venezuela.

Uncertain Aftermath and Potential for Chaos

The Caracas government has been decapitated, but remaining high-ranking figures of the regime appear still to be in place. They are urging resistance and, potentially, reprisals against the US. There are unverified accounts of civilian casualties. If a leadership void develops, civil stability might disintegrate, sparking civil war or a possible military coup. And it is uncertain whether the most recent American armed intervention has concluded, or may escalate further.

The notion that banished dissident figures will swiftly return and that complete democratic rule will now be restored is naive. The coming days will be critical. And it’s all down to Trump.

The Myth of the Peacemaker

Trump’s imprudent move should finally lay to rest his perpetually deceptive characterisation of himself as a “world peacemaker”. It’s past time that leaders in Europe publicly recognise him for who he is – a international provocateur of war, a universal menace.

Each time he blunders noisily into conflict zones, setting deadlines, issuing ultimatums, picking favourites and monetising misery, the quest for fair and enduring peace is hindered.

No surprise peace remains distant. And bizarrely, even while posing as a disinterested peacemaker and one who avoids intervention, Trump simultaneously wages war on the world. The US conducted unprecedented levels of aerial bombardments in the Middle East and Africa the previous year, data indicates.

A Heritage Built on Violence

Since returning to office a year ago, the ostensibly peace-seeking President has launched strikes in Yemen, negligently causing the deaths of numerous civilians after relaxing combat protocols; bombed Nigeria, to detrimental outcomes; struck locations in Somalia, Iraq and Syria; and targeted Iranian sites, where he mendaciously exaggerated the success of US strikes on atomic energy sites. He even will not exclude attacking Greenland, a sovereign territory of a NATO partner.

What’s going on inside Trump’s head? A benign interpretation is that in matters of war and peace, he has no conception what he is doing – no plan, no understanding – and invents strategy as he goes, depending on how he feels.

The more ominous reading says he knows exactly what he is doing, that more and worse are forthcoming. Like previous leaders in their final term who exhausted options at home, Trump finds the global platform offers greater possibilities for the exercise of power and ego. He is forging a historical record through violence.

Trump’s reckless, perilously unstable conduct is getting noticeably more severe. His Venezuela “triumph” may encourage him to try further and bigger, unhinged outrages. He parades and postures, shouts for chaos! and lets slip the dogs of war.