Two unpredictable personalities, such as Trump and Putin, may be the reason for a fundamental reordering of the world
I don’t know what Donald Trump will cite as his “great achievement” at the end of his term. Nor do I know what Vladimir Putin will try to highlight on his side. Their major contribution to humanity, however, through their unpredictable politics, is that they have ceremoniously marked the end of the superpowers.
Four years after the start of the war that was supposed to be resolved in a matter of days, Putin finds himself trapped in a conflict that has proven only that the Russian bear is not invincible, and is now struggling to maintain even part of the image it built through fire and iron.
Two months after the beginning of the attack on Iran, the United States is humiliated and increasingly contradicting itself in a desperate effort to find a way out of the dark room into which it forcefully entered. Even on an economic level, the threats and coercion from Donald Trump, as well as the dependencies Putin tried to impose, seem to have reached their limits and contribute to a reshuffling of forces that until now considered themselves unable to free themselves from the old masters.
Humanity has lived through a long Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, which later evolved—after a brief period of supposed cooperation—into an economic-military war between Russia and the United States. Today, these two superpowers, once revered worldwide, have through the policies of their leaders revealed their true size, which is far smaller than they presented.
What the next day will bring, no one can predict with certainty. Yet this spectacular failure of the superpowers may lead to the realisation that the new world requires greater cooperation and fewer overlords dictating the rules of the game. To the extent that this is understood, a new path may open for Europe, which for decades accepted being America’s support. Difficult, given the mosaic of states and perspectives, but the necessity of survival usually drives the reactions that ensure it—especially when taking into account emerging superpowers like China and India.
Human history does not change in months or even years. Global processes take time to form and produce tangible outcomes. No empire has ever collapsed overnight, even if the modern era is characterised by rapidity on every level.
For now, what stands out is that two unpredictable personalities like Trump and Putin may actually be the reason for a fundamental reshaping of the world. And even if they themselves never realise it, this may be their greatest contribution to humanity: they marked the end of the superpowers as we have known them.
This article was first published on 10.05.2026
Source: THE END OF SUPERPOWERS
