Americans: the low interest rates, and easy borrowing which have come with having the rest of the world decide to buy US government debt may well come to an end as a result of Trump’s threatening to invade a European country. This will have huge ripple effects over time, driving up the cost of housing, and making jobs scarcer.
I’m thinking it’s more about how much of the abuse you can tolerate. It’s not like the US has been all that hesitant to abuse our allies in the past. It’s more like our allies have previously been able to convince themselves that the benefits outweighed the costs.
Like the friend who’s an asshole, but he’s got a 120" TV and is happy to share his booze. When he gets drunk and makes an inappropriate joke, you might ignore it. You tell your wife that he’s not that bad and you owe him for all he did for you in college.
The US has reached the point of whipping it’s dick out and waving it around at everyone at the party. It’s time to leave.
I think you’re right. The world has accepted, or at least tolerated US hegemonic dominance because it worked well enough, but that doesn’t mean it was ideal. Far from it, for many countries. It’s not like the world was given a choice, really. Or, more accurately, the world’s choices were severely limited. Perhaps a majority of the world’s countries just saw US hegemony as the least bad option. But even those countries that didn’t agree that it was the least bad option, what were they supposed to do about it?