The Removal of Maduro: Implications for a Rules Based Order?
Will America’s abduction of Nicolás Maduro undermine or potentially reinforce international rules?
Breaking a rule focuses attention on the rule and the rule breaker. In everyday life and governance, when individuals or even nations break a rule, it does not necessarily change the rule. To the contrary, it can focus attention on the rule being broken. If an individual or nation continues to break a rule, that actor is regarded as rogue – as uncontrollable and possibly dangerous.
In that spirit, the US invaded Venezuela to snatch – abduct – the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro. Some journalists have quite understandably argued that this means there are ‘no rules’ from now on that apply to state actions in removing an office holder from another sovereign nation.[1] I admit that it may indicate that Donald Trump in this case does not believe he has violated any rule, or that he believes international rules or laws do not apply to him and his administration, even though the US was arguably the architect of a rules based order.
However, consider the discussion that has followed his actions on the 3rd of January. Countless critics of the administration’s actions have addressed the ways in which using a nation’s military to snatch even a rogue dictator from a country is a violation of international rules of order. Professor Marc Weller, who directs the international law programme at Chatham House, noted that what the US described as a judicial ‘extraction mission’ is ‘clearly a significant violation of Venezuelan sovereignty and the UN Charter’.[2]
I would hope that over the days and months to follow this action that ever greater attention will be focused on how international rules of order apply to this extraction as well as what these rules are. Is the US acting outside of established international norms and rules of order? Has the US become a ‘rogue state’ as suggested by other experts, such as Lee Jones, Professor of Political Economy and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London?[3]
Sadly, this debate is likely to be politicized by the polarized partisan divides in the US over the wisdom and norms governing the President’s actions. But for the wider world, how these questions are resolved could have momentous consequences.
Notes
[1] Nesrine Malik, ‘Trump’s coup has made it clear: no rules apply any more’, Editorial, The Guardian, 5 January 2026, p. 1.
[2] Marc Weller, ‘The US capture of President Nicolás Maduro – and attacks on Venezuela – have no justification in international law’, Expert Comment, Chatham House, 4 January, 2026: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/01/us-capture-president-nicolas-maduro-and-attacks-venezuela-have-no-justification