Maduro’s Downfall Changes Everything. Here’s How.

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Video originally published on January 6, 2026.

Maduro’s Downfall Changes Everything. Here’s How. Introduction.

Key Takeaways

Maduro’s Downfall Changes Everything.

Here’s How.

Introduction.

Key Developments

“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.” That was US President Donald Trump, just hours after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a shock-and-awe, lightning offensive—and, in fairness to America’s Commander-in-Chief, he’s probably right. Over the course of a single night, the United States forcibly extracted the leader of an adversary nation, completely disrupted and suppressed its military’s ability to respond, and removed Venezuela from an international network of nations that Russia, China, Cuba, and their allies have been building for a generation. Eat your heart out, Vladimir Putin; /that’s/ what a real special military operation looks like. But even as American leaders were popping champagne in Washington, the entire world was coming to terms with the much larger ramifications of America’s actions. The United States had clearly demonstrated its military authority over the American supercontinent…but what it had done, wasn’t normal. The United States does international intervention all the time, it’s done regime change frequently across modern history…but the post-Cold-War USA has never done an attack quite like that.

Strategic Implications

And now that it’s crossed a very particular set of lines with its own behavior, it’s set the conditions for a much larger series of changes, all around the world. Nation-Building is a Loser’s Game. It’s always been one of the great ironies of the way the world worked, after the Cold War, that the global rules put in place by the world’s sole superpower were rules that that superpower often didn’t seem to follow. The US threw its support behind the idea that, for example, it should be generally frowned-upon to invade other countries, and then went and invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. It advocated for rules-based conduct on the international stage, backed up by international courts, and then passed legislation that allows it to literally invade the Hague, if it looks like American or allied personnel are going to be put on trial in the International Criminal Court. The accusation that America’s set of rules, in an America-led world, essentially amounted to “rules for thee, but not for me”, has been a regular complaint from America’s adversaries and even some of its friends, for over three decades now.

Outlook

But as valid as those critiques of Washington were, they also tended to overlook a rather important bit of nuance: America didn’t always follow its own rules, but there were a few rules that America always made sure to follow. Some of them are obvious: don’t use nuclear weapons, don’t annex territories into your own country even if you do invade them, don’t destroy other countries’ stuff in space, et cetera. But the rule that’s especially important for our purposes today, is slightly more nuanced: If you’re going to take unilateral, military action in another country…don’t just leave, once that action has finished. Now, we’ll discuss why that rule matters in just a moment, but first, we’ve got to explain why it matters that Washington /doesn’t/ break very specific rules, even as it’s willing to break others. In essence, anytime the US can avoid violating a global precedent, a global norm, or a global standard that it deems to be especially important, it’s able to thoroughly condemn and act against other nations when they overstep, with the full faith and confidence that America’s allies in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific will stand behind it, and that offending nations will have few, if any defenders. In a world where the US and, sometimes, other nations get away with breaking most of the rules, there’s real value to being able to punish violations of the much smaller set of real rules that aren’t to be broken, especially when it’s America leading the charge.

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About the Author

Jackson Reed

Jackson Reed creates and presents analysis focused on military doctrine, strategic competition, and conflict dynamics.

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