Welcome to Episode 1 of America Against the World, a special four-part miniseries from

This Is Not a Drill. If you want to hear the complete series right now, you can get every

episode immediately when you support us on Patreon, the crowdfunding site. Follow the link in the show

notes to find out more.

In 1941, as the United States entered World War II, an American businessman, the publisher Henry Luce, spoke of the world entering the American century.

Some 80 years later, in November 2025, another American businessman, Donald J. Trump, led the United States

government as it published a new national security document with one particularly memorable sentence.

The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.

Propping up the world even for Atlas, the powerful titan of Greek mythology,

wasn't a reward, it was a punishment from the gods,

but it's difficult to believe Mr. Trump sees American world leadership truly as a punishment,

although right now it might seem a punishment to other people,

those in Iran, Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, the UAE, Greenland and elsewhere.

In this four-part series, we're going to ask whether we are truly witnessing the end of the American century,

whether the Trump disruption is a passing phase or a permanent shift towards a new world order or disorder,

and how the rest of us, middle-ranking and smaller powers,

NATO allies, democratic countries around the world,

the people of Ukraine facing the Russian invasion,

and also rival big powers, including China and Russia,

can, shoot, and will react.

I'm Gavin Esler, and this is not a dream. In part one of America against the world, we're going to explore how far the idea of the American century and the Pax Americana were always a bit delusional,

especially in the light of conflicts from Korea and Vietnam to the Middle East and Afghanistan

...