India, Jan. 5 -- The US intervention in Venezuela is both stunning and alarming for the manner in which the country disregarded international laws and abducted the elected President of a sovereign country to put him on trial in New York on charges of narco-terrorism. The implications of this action will not be limited to the US and Venezuela. For the Trump administration, the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is the final proof that the foreign policy that President Donald Trump espoused at the start of his first presidential term is well and truly dead. Trump won the support of the Make America Great Again movement claiming he would end America's foreign wars. Time and again, he insisted that his government was not interested in regime change. But it has been clear to everyone, especially since the start of his second term that Trump wants the world to kowtow to the US, and that he is not above using all weapons at his disposal to ensure this. Maduro's abduction by US security forces, from the presidential quarters in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, is unprecedented, even by the US's record of interventions in South and Central American countries. Trump has since said the US will now administer Venezuela, and American firms will manage that country's oil and petroleum resources. He has even dismissed the credentials of Venezuela's opposition, making the US goals resemble the European imperialist projects of the 19th and 20th centuries. The West-enforced rules-based order that has shaped global power relations since World War II now lies in ruins. The Trump administration's action undermines the US's standing as a responsible world power - the perception was an important aspect of the rules-based order - and sends out the message that might is right in international affairs. Powers such as Russia and China have criticised the US action, but these nations too nurture imperial ambitions - events in Ukraine and the approach to Taiwan are evidence - and Washington's action could set a new precedent. Venezuela is a close ally of China, and how Beijing responds to this event will be closely watched. Under the rules-based order, national sovereignty and national borders have been red lines to be respected. India's response has been muted - it expressed "deep concern" - but much of the Global South, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Chile, among others, has criticised the US action. With the United Nations ineffective and big powers discredited, a reasonable framework or credible platform for dispute resolution is missing. Just as a new year begins, the world is staring at chaos, and the global economy may take a hit if supply from Venezuela, a major petroleum producer, is disrupted for long....