On January 3, 2026, the arrival of Nicolás Maduro in a New York courtroom, shackled and facing narco-terrorism charges, sent shockwaves throughout the international community. For many observers, "Operation Absolute Resolve" appeared to be the manifestation of a chaotic, ego-driven military extraction in the heart of Caracas that invited regional instability. Critics were quick to label the raid either a reckless dabbling in imperialism at worst or perhaps a potential violation of international law at best.
These characterizations are a highly reactionary and nonacademic framework, because far from being a departure from American tradition, the Trump administration’s approach to Venezuela represents a return to a coherent, realist logic of hemispheric dominance. As it has been dubbed in recent weeks, this "Donroe Realism" treats the Western Hemisphere as one of the primary inner circles of a graduated defense strategy that serves a multipolar world more efficiently.
The Concentric Circles of Security
To understand the capture of Maduro, one must look at the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), which codified a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. This is a marked break with the policy pursued during the Biden administration, which often prioritized hard-power engagements in distant theaters like Ukraine or the South China Sea. What Trump offers is a doctrine that operates on a theory of concentric circles.
In this framework, the American homeland is the center point. The first and most immediate line of security is the border. The second is the regional periphery-the Caribbean and Latin America. Only after these inner circles are secured, the logic goes, can the United States effectively project power more globally.
The administration’s treatment of border enforcement and hemispheric stability as inextricably linked reframed the Venezuelan crisis in a way that is more palatable to the isolationist factions or America First elements within the American right. Under Maduro, Venezuela had become a kind of 21st-century Cuba in its flirting with extra-hemispheric rivals like Russia, Iran, and China, though unlike 1960s Cuba, this new foe was connected to a vast narcotics smuggling network throughout the Americas. Frankly, Maduro is lucky to have lasted as long as he did, as his behavior would seem to be the realist’s equivalent of trying to antagonize a cop while behind the wheel of a stolen automobile.
A Graduated Coercion
The shift from the Biden era to the second Trump term was marked by a move away from liberal internationalist tools in a rather unexpectedly dramatic fashion. While the previous administration emphasized alliance commitments and multilateral sanctions, the current strategy employs a layered coercion that is both more openly transactional and direct.
The contrast is most visible in the role of the military. For years, the U.S. relied on over-the-horizon deterrence or symbolic naval presence. Operation Absolute Resolve, however, utilized over 150 aircraft and specialized ground forces to execute a precise law-enforcement action backed by overwhelming military force. This was not nation-building-as evidenced by the administration’s pragmatic decision to work with regime holdovers like Acting President Delcy Rodríguez rather than the traditional democratic opposition. It was really an exercise in asymmetric pressure designed to achieve a specific security outcome without the permanent military presence of the Iraq or Vietnam eras.
The Return of the Sphere of Influence
The capture of Maduro signals that the era of opaque global polarity has brought about a return to the basics of statecraft and with it; the maintenance of a sphere of influence. For nearly thirty years, the U.S. pursued a policy of global hegemony that often neglected its own near abroad. The result was a vacuum filled by rival powers and criminal syndicates, giving us the rather odd reality of tolerating drug cartels in Mexico whilst trying to maintain a global balance of power in Indochina. Communism’s eventual victory in Vietnam and America’s rapidily increasing problems as a result of weakness regarding Mexico created a painful lesson that seemed to have gone largely unnoticed or ignored by Washington for decades.
The New Old Normal
The capture of Nicolás Maduro was not really a break from history as much as a continuation of a highly defensible desire to lock in the nation’s periphery that was more common before the unipolar moment. As the legal proceedings against Maduro begin in Manhattan, the real trial is happening in the capitals of the Western Hemisphere. Regional leaders are now grappling with a Washington that is less concerned with values-based leadership and more focused on the hard realities of border control and the expulsion of hostile foreign influence. Whether one views this shift as a necessary correction or a dangerous escalation, the era of Trump represents a 21st-century take on a centuries-old policy.
Gabriel Maurer is a graduate student in History at Pittsburg State University.
