Tanks of the Zionist entity invading Lebanon. Photo: AFP.
By Luis Linares Zapata – Mar 11, 2026
To achieve hegemonic imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, several prerequisites must be in place. The most important is the backing of a military capable of sustaining those ambitions. But military power alone is not enough. Other conditions are equally necessary: a formidable economy equipped with sophisticated global financial mechanisms, capable of penetrating an extensive and diversified market. That economy must in turn be supported by productive technologies that render it efficient.
If, beyond this, a media network exists that can reach diverse audiences across at least a substantial portion of the empire’s areas of interest, then the picture is complete. The particular combination of these requirements varies depending on the nature of the clientele to be subjugated.
Cultural and ideological influence can be layered on top to further facilitate the domination being sought. Ethnic supremacism has served, in every past and present case, as an active undercurrent.
The case of the United States, a dominant power for over a century, warrants closer examination. Its hegemony is no longer universal in reach. There are vast domains where it now encounters resistance that constrains it. China, over the past several years, has risen to the level of an enormous and thoroughly modern global power. Its military, market, technological sophistication, and scientific and educational infrastructure have each, in their own right, surpassed their American counterparts. A coalition of alliances (BRICS among them), operating outside the US orbit, has succeeded in pooling enough resources to sustain genuine and active independence.
Internal tensions within the United States itself erect further barriers, forcing a degree of restraint. That restraint has not been faithfully observed of late, but the constraints remain. The political leadership of this empire has watched the external consensus that once complemented and legitimized its actions erode rapidly, above all when it comes to the kinds of dictates that demand either submission or voluntary compliance. Faced with this increasingly adverse landscape, the resort to extreme instruments has intensified: tariffs first, and where tariffs fall short, force.
The Trump Corollary: Imperialist Offensive and the Assault on Venezuela
Military action, then, becomes the blunt instrument deployed in the service of hegemonic rescue. This has been conspicuous in two simultaneous cases: Venezuela first, then Iran. Other candidates are already being named, including Cuba, Mexico, and whoever else happens to suit the empire’s tastes and whims. To navigate around these mandates, or to blunt their effects, targeted nations have adopted varying strategies. Some seek accommodation without outright submission, avoiding direct confrontation. Others have chosen a position of dignity and firmness, building alliances that extend their own reach, approaches that have taken shape in recent years as genuine alternatives for sovereign self-determination.
The tension generated by this already overextended leadership, stoked by President Donald Trump’s ostentatious displays of dominance, may yet intensify further.
The accumulated weight of so much volatility has produced dangerous instabilities for which no adequate remedy has been found.
Chief among them is a widespread awareness that the old rules, institutions, and rituals of multilateralism have been broken. The confidence that once attached to established decision-making channels for coordinating international action has been gravely undermined. A kind of institutional habit has taken hold: cushioning the unpredictable, learning to absorb Trump’s temperamental improvisations. This cautious posture toward the powerful is understandable and even advisable, yet it does not rule out the alternative of firm, decisive opposition, which is precisely what China demonstrated, with tangible results.
This has reinforced, among other nations, irrespective of their quality or strength, the awareness of adopting measures of active prudence (Europe), as what is already happening—in the pursuit of maintaining US hegemony—involves the use of extreme force, especially against nations with unequal capabilities. This is the path a declining empire takes when it can no longer halt its slide through other means.
Although the empire’s reach is no longer what it once was at the global level, it retains its coercive weight at the regional one. Military force, accordingly, has become the uncompromising fallback in the face of decline and rising competition. Trump has turned to indirect maneuvers to compensate for his vulnerabilities, among them the construction of support coalitions for his ventures. The thin credibility of those who answer the call makes such coalitions as revealing as they are faintly absurd. The recently announced Shield of the Americas is exposed for what it is, not by those who joined, but by the dignified nations that chose to stay away.
Those with a colonized mentality rushed to their own prostration, hoping for assistance and prestige that do not exist. A similar logic runs through Trump’s attempt to seize the Gaza coastline for private and family gain.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
