By Timofey Bordachev, Program Director of the Valdai Club
Washington has proven an uncomfortable truth: a nation that sows chaos abroad eventually reaps it at home. For decades, the United States perfected the art of controlled disorder: destabilizing rivals while preserving its own internal calm. That illusion is now collapsing.
The recent election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, a 34-year-old left-wing activist and Muslim who defied every prediction, is more than a local upset. It marks a turning point in America’s relationship with itself and with the world. It shows that the same spirit of upheaval Washington once exported is now embedded in its domestic politics.
Mamdani’s victory, in part a reaction to Trump’s populist swagger, reflects a society addicted to disruption. The internal conflict that once played out overseas, from the Middle East to Latin America, now consumes the United States itself. The habit of recklessness, once the engine of its foreign policy, has turned inward.
For years, the American elite survived by exporting disorder. Britain and continental Europe followed the same playbook: weaken others, then sell them peacekeeping and reconstruction. The method had three aims. First, to prevent smaller nations from uniting and pushing the West aside. Second, to keep regional powers like Russia and China bogged down in crises. Third, to make Western “stability” indispensable; and profitable.
But those days are ending. None of the “peacekeeping” operations Washington boasts of – from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Libya to the Balkans – have strengthened its political position. Instead, they’ve drained its authority and moral capital.
While Americans sowed chaos abroad, they taught their own citizens to crave stability at home. Now that illusion has evaporated too. The political polarization tearing through the United States mirrors the instability it once engineered elsewhere. Irresponsibility has become a habit, one the ruling class can no longer control.
The consequences are global. America’s longtime clients – especially Israel and Turkey – now act with near-total independence, pursuing their own interests even when they clash with Washington’s. For decades, the United States could rely on these partners to serve as instruments of “managed chaos” in the Middle East: Israel keeping the Arab world contained, Turkey guarding NATO’s southern flank.
That system is breaking down. Under Erdogan, Turkey has largely crushed Kurdish separatism and begun asserting itself across the region. Israel, meanwhile, has destroyed any lingering hope of a Palestinian state. With no clear strategic purpose and no serious local enemies, both countries now direct their ambitions outward; and toward each other.
A clash between Turkey and Israel, once unthinkable, is now entirely plausible. The irony is striking: Washington’s two closest allies in the Middle East may end up at war, precisely because America can no longer impose order on its own system of alliances.
This erosion of control exposes a deeper problem. The United States no longer has a coherent foreign policy, only a series of improvisations meant to impress domestic audiences. Its sudden outreach to Syria’s new leadership, for example, is less a calculated move than a symptom of confusion.
This article was first published by Vzglyad newspaper and translated and edited by the RT team.
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