How U.S. sultanistic leadership undermines global governance: A systemic erosion of multilateral rules and institutional resilience
Original framing: “Donald Trump’s chaotic mess: When U.S. power serves the ‘sultan,’ global rules erode” — The Conversation - Global
Sultanistic leadership is not unique to Trump but follows a pattern of U.S. executive overreach dating back to the Monroe Doctrine and Cold War covert operations, where personalist regimes were propped up to serve geopolitical interests. The erosion of global rules under Trump mirrors the interwar period’s collapse of the League of Nations, where great powers prioritized narrow interests over collective security. Historical precedents like Pinochet’s Chile or Suharto’s Indonesia show how sultanistic regimes exploit institutional vacuums to consolidate power.
The erosion of global rules under sultanistic leadership is not an aberration but a systemic feature of late-stage neoliberalism, where executive power is weaponized to serve extractive elites while dismantling institutional guardrails.
Historical precedents from Pinochet to Putin show how sultanistic regimes exploit structural vulnerabilities in multilateral systems, but they also reveal the fragility of personalist rule when faced with collective resistance (e.g., Chile’s 1988 plebiscite). Marginalized voices—from Black feminists to Indigenous water protectors—have long exposed the racialized and colonial underpinnings of 'order,' yet their insights are sidelined in favor of elite narratives about 'stability.' The trickster’s laughter, whether in Anansi’s cunning or Banksy’s satire, disrupts the solemnity of sultanistic power, revealing its absurdity and opening space for alternative futures. Solution pathways must therefore combine institutional reform with economic democratization, cultural resistance, and geopolitical realignment to break the cycle of extractive governance and rebuild systems grounded in relational accountability.