Space, Technology, and Resources in the New International Competition
The idea that the security and global power projection of the United States depend on effective control of the Western Hemisphere is not merely a legacy of twentieth-century strategic tradition, but a structural constant that is re-emerging with force in the current phase of transformation of the international order. In this context, the approach promoted by Donald Trump does not represent an anomalous interlude; rather, it constitutes both a blunt clarification and a deliberate acceleration of an underlying logic of power: first the hemispheric space must be secured, and only then can global-scale competition be sustained.
This sequence is not discretionary, but structural: short of securing control over the Western hemisphere, any prolonged global competition would expose the United States to simultaneous external pressures and internal destabilisation, thereby eroding its capacity for strategic resilience.
An Acceleration Driven by the International System and Internal Fractures
The current U.S. strategic acceleration responds to a dual pressure. On the one hand, Washington must confront the growing relevance of emerging actors and alternative coalitions—particularly BRICS+—which challenge Western primacy on economic, financial, and political levels. The rise of China as a systemic hegemon and the strategic resilience of Russia make it clear that time works against American power; containment must be rapid, selective, and structural.
On the other hand, this acceleration is deeply conditioned by internal crises within the United States. Relative deindustrialisation, social tensions, increasing political polarisation, and the difficulties faced by broad segments of the middle class reduce the room for maneuver for any administration. In this context, foreign policy also becomes an instrument of internal consolidation, capable of providing tangible responses to an electorate that perceives both material and symbolic decline.
To this is added a decisive temporal factor: the November midterm elections. Trump must approach this deadline with credible results, or at least with a narrative of strength, control, and initiative. The reassertion of U.S. authority in the Western Hemisphere thus becomes not only a long-term strategic necessity, but also an urgent short-term political imperative.
The Western Hemisphere as an Integrated Strategic Fortress
From a geopolitical perspective, the Western Hemisphere takes shape as a systemic fortress characterized by low strategic entropy. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are not merely spaces of commercial connectivity, they function as selective barriers that protect the North American continental core. They do not prevent access in absolute terms, but they make any attempt at direct pressure extremely costly in military, technological, and logistical terms.
The new policy of continental integration allows the United States to drastically reduce existential threats to its territory and to avoid direct symmetric competition on its own soil. Continental security thus becomes an active strategic resource; it enables Washington to convert the protection of internal space into external freedom of maneuver. Whoever maintains stable control of the Western Hemisphere is not forced to react to events, but can instead select the timing, locations, and modes of confrontation, preserving strategic initiative within the global system.
What the Western Hemisphere Really Is
The Western Hemisphere is not coterminous with the Americas in a narrow sense. It encompasses a broader set of spaces that contribute to its geopolitical coherence and to its function as the “secure rear” of U.S. power.
The Americas constitute the territorial core of this space. North America, including Canada, the United States, and Mexico, represents the strategic and logistical heart of the hemisphere. The territorial, infrastructural, and industrial continuity of this area creates a power multiplier that is difficult to replicate elsewhere. Central America and the Caribbean instead perform a hinge function: this is where vital maritime routes, migratory flows, illicit trafficking, military bases, and energy infrastructure are concentrated. South America, finally, while occupying a more peripheral position, remains a highly sensitive space, rich in energy and mineral resources, whose instability tends to impact the entire hemisphere.
Alongside the Americas, a part of Europe performs a similar buffer role. Greenland (geographically part of North America) is a critical Arctic strategic node for controlling polar routes, Arctic resources, and northern access to the North American continent. Iceland is a hinge for communication lines between North America and Europe, while the Azores and other Atlantic archipelagos extend Western strategic depth to the heart of the Atlantic. Taken together, these spaces prevent the North Atlantic from turning into a geopolitical vacuum or into an area of contestation between rival powers.
The Continental Pillars in Trump’s Strategy
Trump’s approach explicits a principle that often remains implicit in strategic debate: without full control of one’s immediate space, no credible global power can exist. This explains his focus on controlling several key continental nodes.
Greenland is important because of its geographic location and natural resources that are vital to various advanced technologies. It is a forward base for the deployment of sensors, radar systems, and infrastructures connected to space control and missile defense. Strengthening its hold over this territory increases America’s strategic depth.
Canada, often perceived only as a political tributary ally, is a structural component of continental security. Its energy, mineral, and water resources, its vast territory, and its Arctic outreach make it an integral part of the ‘Greater United States’. fated to lose most of its remaining regional autonomy.
Mexico occupies a very sensitive area of the entire hemisphere. The explicit threats raised by Trump in connection to Fentanyl smuggling should not be interpreted solely as security rhetoric or as domestic politics; they are weapons of geopolitical coercion. Through pressure on drug trafficking, borders, and migratory flows, Washington aims to reduce the strategic entropy along its southern frontier. Mexico is a hinge: if it remains porous and unstable, it undermines the consolidated Western super-state (that Elon Musk’s South-African grandfather defined as a Technate).
Venezuela is a critical node due to the combination of immense energy resources and political openness to extra-hemispheric penetration. Its strategic orientation directly affects the balance of power i South America and the overall cohesiveness of the Western Hemisphere.
The “Gulf of America”: Designation as an Act of Power
The decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America should be interpreted as a symbol of Washington’s hegemonic reaffirmation. To name a space is to take possession of it, and define its function. Before the political and geopolitical act comes the symbolic one: a designation already amounts to a subjugation.
Technological Supremacy, New Weapons, and Control of Space
In competition with emerging actors such as China and resilient actors such as Russia, the decisive variable is no longer merely economic or military dominance, but technological supremacy. The latter alows the development of new generations of weaponry—hypersonic, autonomous, cyber—and determines the capacity to integrate systems of command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
Control of outer space assumes a critical role within this framework. It no longer simply supports terrestrial operations. Whoever controls satellites, sensors, and anti-satellite capabilities decides who sees, who communicates, and who commands. The space dimension thus becomes the natural extension of the hemispheric fortress, projected vertically as Trump tried to explain in his usual awkward and confusing style.
Strategic Resources and the Suspension of the Normative Order
The ongoing global confrontation compels the United States to accelerate the takeover and protection of strategic resources. Energy, critical minerals, and rare earths are no longer mere economic assets, they are national security factors indispensable to the development of new civilian and military technologies. Access to these resources, wherever they are located, becomes an integral part of power competition.
All this takes place in a context marked by the suspension of the norms of the previous international order. Treaties and rules forged within a now-outdated system no longer fully constrain the actions of great powers. The Trumpian approach demonstrates that sovereignty is a result of power, that law tends to follow force, and that space, resources, and language are instruments of geopolitical competition.
Conclusion: Hemispheric Closure as a Precondition for Global Competition
The conclusion that emerges from this analysis is clear: short of achieving full and dynamic control of the Western Hemisphere, the United States cannot sustain a prolonged global competition with rising rivals. The assaults on Greenland, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and even the symbolic redefinition of the Gulf of Mexico all fall within a single strategic logic aimed at slowing down the country’s internal entropy and maximizing strategic freedom abroad.
In a transforming international system, hegemony is preserved not by holding on to old rules, but by reasserting control over space, resources, technology, and the language of power. For Washington, the Western Hemisphere is the first and indispensable arena of the battle for planetary dominance.
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