Kaja Kallas hasn't *once* condemned the Trump administration for illegally bombing Iran — which resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — or for massacring 120 innocent schoolchildren. But here she is, proudly proclaiming that she's putting pressure on Iran to reopen the Strait and improve its human rights record. The West has become a joke in the eyes of the rest of the world. Most of its leaders come across as complete clowns. They are complicit in murdering children in cold blood, and they deliberately break international law left, right and centre. Yet they have the audacity to claim moral and legal high ground on the global stage.

I say this with the utmost seriousness as a scholar of international political economy: the rules-based international order is dead. At the UN General Assembly, Trump, in very casual language, talks about annihilating another country. The room stays quiet. No collective protest. No formal objection. And this goes far beyond rhetoric. The US *has* bombed Iran, in clear violation of international law. The US *has* kidnapped Venezuela's head of state and is in the process of looting the country's natural resources, in clear violation of international law. The US *has* tightened its blockade on Cuba, in clear violation of international law. Then there is, of course, the genocide in Gaza, for which the US has provided unconditional support. After World War II, the US was one of the primary architects of a system meant to encourage global cooperation. But the US has consistently broken that system's rules to advance its imperial interests. The system has therefore lost all its legitimacy.