News:

President Trump signed a presidential memorandum ordering the United States' withdrawal from 66 international organizations, claiming they no longer serve American interests. This withdrawal includes 35 non-UN organizations and 31 UN entities. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on the memorandum in a press release, saying, “Today, in furtherance of Executive Order 14199, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organizations identified as part of the Trump Administration’s review of wasteful, ineffective, and harmful international organizations. Review of additional international organizations pursuant to Executive Order 14199 remains ongoing.” (state.gov)

The international organizations from which the US withdrew ranged from those concerned with climate, energy, and the environment, to those related to women and population, such as UN Women and the UN Population Fund, to legal organizations like the International Development Law Organization, and even those related to agriculture, such as the International Cotton Advisory Committee, among many other diverse international organizations.

CNN quoted White House sources as saying that this withdrawal would end American taxpayer funding, and participation in entities that promote globalist agendas at the expense of America’s priorities. The sources indicated that taxpayer money would be better directed elsewhere, and that this withdrawal would fulfill a key promise Trump made to Americans: to stop supporting global bureaucrats who work against the country’s interests. The Trump administration, the sources added, would always put America and Americans first.

The author noted the Trump administration’s use of the term “civilizational erasure” in its new National Security Strategy.

Comment:

These sudden, mass withdrawals by the United States from dozens of international organizations effectively mark the beginning of the practical dismantling of the current international order, and represent a genuine prelude to the creation of new international organizations, based on entirely different foundations.

For example, among the organizations from which Trump withdrew are those related to European partners, such as the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, and others. All of these withdrawals indicate a clear American break from the Europeans.

Furthermore, the United States withdrew from virtually every organization related to globalization, international cooperation, and international relations, including the International Trade Centre, the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC), the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.

In doing so, the US severed all ties of cooperation with the international order and focused instead on unilateral or bilateral international relations, disregarding all efforts to foster closer global relations between states and societies.

In addition, the United States withdrew from international organizations concerned with Latin America, Africa, and Asia, such as the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. All these withdrawals pertain to Asian, African, and Latin American countries because the United States prefers bilateral relations with these nations, and does not want to establish international relations with them.

Even shared Western civilizational concepts, which the West seeks to make universal, have been disregarded by the United States. It withdrew from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law, the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, and the International Law Commission.

Thus, the United Nations organizations, their laws, their agreements, and adherence to them have become unimportant to the United States, and consequently, no longer binding on the rest of the world. The United States has stripped them of their binding force, thereby diminishing their prestige, undermining their sovereignty, and destroying their authority. The world's nations can now seek new frameworks, new norms, and new organizations. America, by withdrawing from its position as the world's leading power, and the guarantor of the current international order, has provided the world, its nations, and its societies with the pretext to begin searching for alternatives and new civilizational and legal frameworks.

Today, the only thing that can fill this void for the nations and peoples of the world is Islam, due to its capacity to offer effective alternatives, and to serve as the acceptable civilizational and legal framework for all the peoples of the earth.