Sanctions, Regime Change, and the Architecture of U.S. Empire | Vijay Prashad

The US kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro marks a critical moment in contemporary global politics. For decades, the United States has positioned itself as the guardian of a “rules-based international order.” This episode explores how fragile and selective that framework becomes when imperial power is directly exercised.

The abduction of a sitting head of state represents more than a diplomatic crisis. It reflects a deeper transformation in how sovereignty, international law, and coercion are understood and deployed. Sanctions regimes, legal exceptionalism, and economic warfare have long been tools of US imperialism. What we are witnessing now is their escalation into open, unilateral force, normalised and justified in the language of security and legality.

In this episode, Ali Javed is joined by Vijay Prashad to unpack what this moment reveals about US imperialism in its current phase. Together, they situate the kidnapping within a longer history of intervention, regime change, and imperial governance, while asking what this means for the future of international law, state sovereignty, and global power relations.