In an Executive Order titled “Restoring the United States Department of War”, President Trump authorized the US Department of Defense (DoD) to use Department of War (DoW) as a secondary title. Signed on Friday, September 5, 2025, the order also authorized the Secretary of Defense to use “Secretary of War” as a secondary title.
Though Trump did not legally rename DoD, which requires an act of the legislature, the development resonated across the world as a confirmation of Trump’s “Guns-a-blazing” body language, a development that is clearly indicative of desperation on a global scale.
A critical look at the Logo of the US House Committee on Foreign Relations (HCFR) shows an Eagle with olive branch in the right hand and seven arrows in the left hand. The symbolism and significance of olive branch is cordiality and the carrots it attracts by way of aids and other fallouts of soft power strategies (SPS).
On the left hand, the seven arrows signify the proverbial stick that is punitively put to utility when the carrot fails to achieve the imperial objectives.
A deeper look at the Logo shows a map of the world that is diminutive in comparison with the size of the Eagle, which symbolizes and proclaims: “America the Global Cop!!!” That was the reality of our unipolar world. A reality that is fast eroding in the face of the potent from the East. This explains President Trump’s switch to a war mode.
This June, I wrote thus: “From history we learn that empires reach their peak at about 250 years; thereafter, they decline willy-nilly until they collapse. The empires of Rome, Ottoman and Britain followed this pattern, which does not respect culture, geography, technology. This may be mystical but it is certainly mathematical as it defies coincidence. It may sound supernatural but it is historical; improbable but inevitable. America turns 250 years on July 4, 2026.
Alas! the sun of global power-play is following its natural course, setting in the West and rising in the East. The old order (of US unipolarism) is history”.
The cold truth is that, regarding global security, the US does not act impulsively. HCFR and Congressional Intelligence Committee (CIC) are bipartisan and highly patriotic non-political platforms. Therefore, they are not political performers; rather, they are cold-blooded custodians of America’s most sensitive geopolitical calculations.
Armed with detailed briefs of decades-long unrelenting evaluation, assessments and stress-tested scenarios from CIA, NSA, DIA, and AFRICOM, the HCFR and CIC advise the President on critical issues on global affairs with special reference to security.
In all that, the strategic self interest of the US is not only of paramount importance, it is the ultimate and sole objective.
Therefore, pronouncements by the President of the United States (POTUS) on global security are not whimsical. US troops will enter Nigeria.
In a recent Forbes Breaking News interview, Trump gloried on the growing global respect for the US. In a narcissistic self praise, Trump said thus: “They’re not laughing anymore. They respect us like they’ve never done before.” Disregard the poetic rhythm; it was accidental.
Note the bruised ego essence of the above averment by no less a person than POTUS. If nothing else, it is a clear and loudly expressed indication of the extent to which the US has tanked in global rating and the resultant desperation for validation in a global amphitheater that is fast degenerating to the Hobbesian state of nature; a global amphitheater where unipolarism is fast becoming history.
Sadly, the US lives in denial of the bipolarity of our contemporary world.
To understand contemporary world politics is to appreciate that the state of nature as enunciated by Thomas Hobbes in 1651 is a bleeding geopolitical logic rather than the antiquated philosophy, which some scholars erroneously confine it to.
In an obviously anarchic international system, morality takes the distant back seat behind strategic self interest. It is against this scenario that this piece interrogates the US threat to invade Nigeria ostensibly to stop the genocide against Nigerian Christians.
A central concept in political science, economics, business, and ethics, Strategic Self-Interest (SSI) refers to the deliberate pursuit of one’s own goals or advantages in a way that is calculated, long-term, and often involves weighing trade-offs. Unlike mere selfishness or impulsive behavior, SSI requires foresight, planning, and the ability to align one’s personal or organizational interests with broader systems or relationships.
At its core, SSI is about maximizing benefits while minimizing costs or risks. It involves a rational assessment of available options and their consequences over time. It is not necessarily unethical or self-serving in a narrow sense; rather, it often incorporates cooperation, compromise, and even diplomatic and soft power strategies by way of aid, economic cooperation, cultural influence, and propaganda.
Recently, a commentator described the US as “a greedy bully with every reason to invade and take advantage of the situation”. Shortly thereafter, another commentator wrote thus: “We can debate, shout, dismiss, or comfort ourselves with nationalist rhetoric, but none of that alters the geopolitical logic already in motion. The US will eventually deploy military assets to Nigeria—not out of charity, not out of sentimental concern, but because the decision has long been settled within America’s deep security architecture…It is not a question of if. It is a question of when the US will invade Nigeria”.
Note the chilling statement: “not out of charity, not out of sentimental concern, but because the decision has long been settled within America’s deep security architecture”. That decision is informed by US strategic self-interest; it has nothing whatsoever to do with genocide against Christians in Nigeria, which is only a convenient and highly welcome facade for the US. And what is the objective of invading Nigeria? Read my forthcoming piece titled The Objectives of US Invasion of Nigeria”.
By Prof. Jason Osai
