“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters” — Antonio Gramsci THE more things change, the more they stay the same. China may have emerged as a power of global import, but America is still the world’s sheriff, and the Trump ad­­ministration wants everyone to know that. The dust had barely settled on the audacious kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro that the Yankee propaganda machinery started fanning the flames of war on Iran. Imperialism abroad has been accompanied by Trump’s unleashing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goons on American streets with orders to literally shoot ‘suspects’ at sight. The combination of bravado and terror portends more darkness ahead. But what is the end game? There isn’t one. At a base level, Washington still just wants the oil, the lifeblood of the global capitalist order over which it has presided since the end of World War II. This order is creaking at the seams, but a better world system is not visible yet. Venezuela sits atop the biggest reserves of black gold in the world. Iran is number three on the list. US imperialism wants it all. Then there is the other bedrock of the military-industrial complex — making war. In the face of China’s inexorable economic rise and partial erosion of dollar hegemony, US power is not what it was. But Washington possesses 10 times the means of destruction of any other single country. It still bombs and invades other countries at will, kidnaps heads of state in broad daylight. The combination of bravado and terror portends more darkness. Will military might and oil stave off America’s terminal economic decline? The answer depends on who monopolises the new global commodity on the block — critical minerals. Or maybe you prefer the term ‘rare earth’. Whatever your fancy, control over the rock equates to monopolies of renewable energy, electric vehicles, everyday smart technology, high-grade weapons systems and so much more. And this is where China calls out the Empire’s bluff. Beijing’s announcement of unprecedented export controls on rare earth elements a few months ago confirmed its willingness to play hard ball after Trump’s dramatic tariff announcements earlier in 2025. Oil, gas, plastic and coal still matter, but critical minerals are starting to matter more. Capitalism is greening itself and the Empire is being forced to play catch up. What does the tortured withering away of the old order mean for us in this country? Mostly business as usual, at least for now. The current hybrid plus regime is ingratiating itself with as many external patrons as possible to generate those coveted geostrategic rents. You want military personnel to serve in Gaza? Happy to consider it. A port in Pasni to rival the Chinese in Gwadar? Why not? Access to copper, gold and other mineral exploration projects in already conflict-ravaged Baloch­istan and KP? Ayub Khan spun it by claiming: friends, not masters. All of this while Chinese solar panels flood Pakistani markets at breakneck speed, Chinese electric SUVs become the new status symbol of our hedonistic chattering classes, and all manner of defence deals are signed with Gulf kingdoms and whatnot. No one seems to be concerned with the geopolitical wars that will surely intensify. Which brings us to crypto. Earlier this week, the CEO of the shady Trump-owned crypto company World Liberty Finance was in town to ink a deal with the go­­vernment. The big guns were all present to oversee the ‘historic’ agreem­ent. What exactly does it mean to ‘ex­­­-plore innovation in digital finance’? No one really knows, just as no one is privy to what the newly created Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Autho­rity is actually doing, on whose watch and to what end. The crypto game is arguably even more opaque than any other money-making enterprise in the country, and that is saying a lot. More than $600 million was lost to crypto transactions in 2025. The one thing that can be said for certain is that World Liberty Finance has brought in a lot of cash for the Trump family, especially since he became president, and that there is more on the horizon for a select few in both Pakistan and the US in the wake of this deal. And herein lies the rub. For all the geopolitical change taking place around the world, the logic of the system at large remains the accumulation of power and profit. As bloody games around oil, minerals and crypto intensify, brutalised masses in Pakistan and beyond are in line for even more of the brunt of a rapid race to the bottom. The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2026