Dugin’s American Turn
by Alexander Markovics
Alexander Markovics argues that Alexander Dugin’s sudden admiration for America is not a betrayal of his anti-globalist philosophy but the natural outgrowth of his multipolar vision, which sees in Trumpist populism a potential ally in the struggle against thalassocratic liberalism.
Dugin — from “America-hater” to admirer of the United States?
The Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin has been called the most dangerous thinker in the world by The New York Times. This assessment stems from his Fourth Political Theory, which sets out to overcome liberalism. For this reason, he is considered by some observers to be anti-American — especially since he advocates a multipolar world with several power centers, rather than a globalist One World order led by the United States. All the more surprising, then, was his celebration of Trump’s election victory and his talk of a second American Revolution. How should Dugin’s recent statements be interpreted? Are we truly dealing with a “turn” in his thinking, or rather with a logical development of his intellectual framework?
Trump’s Populism and Multipolarity
Dugin already commented on Trump’s 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton. The reason: at the time, Trump promised to drain the globalist swamp in Washington and end the role of the United States as world policeman. This also implied abandoning the Heartland Theory of British geographer and politician Halford Mackinder (1861-1947), which held that whoever controls the Heartland (Eastern Europe and Russia) controls the world island of Eurasia — and thus the world. Consequently, both British geopolitics and, after 1945, its American successor sought to prevent the emergence of a hegemonic power in Eurasia — whether the German Reich or the USSR — as well as any German-Russian alliance. In this way, the Anglo-Saxon, progressive sea powers aimed to defeat the conservative, continental land powers of Eurasia — a theme addressed by Carl Schmitt in Land and Sea (1942). This strategy enabled the brief American “end of history” from 1991 to 2022, during which the United States, as the sole world power, dominated the globe and, under the banner of globalization, spread the rainbow flag and “Western democracy” by fire and sword — culminating in the so-called Great Reset.
From One World to the Distributed Heartland
As part of his theory of a multipolar world, the Russian thinker developed the concept of the “distributed Heartland”: not only Russia-Eurasia, but also the USA, Europe, China, India, Africa, the Islamic world, and others each constitute their own Heartland (read: civilization), each of which has the right — analogous to the USA in the Americas — to repel foreign powers and live according to its own political idea. This was seen as a crime worthy of death in the eyes of globalists, and led to the assassination of his daughter Daria in 2022. Accordingly, land and sea are to be found within each Heartland: as the struggle of the land-bound populist Trump against fluid globalists demonstrates, land and sea are not only opposed in the conflict between Russia and the USA, but also within the USA and Russia themselves. Every person in the world now has the opportunity to follow the example of Putin and Trump and join the global land power in its struggle against the global sea power. Thus, the USA is not an “eternal enemy” of the peoples of the world but only a problem when under the control of globalists who align themselves with the thalassocracy.
The American Spirit in Dugin’s Eyes
In volume 13 of his philosophical magnum opus Noomakhia, Dugin turned in 2017 to the pragmatic Logos of the USA. “Everyone can be whatever they want — even Elvis Presley — so long as they can convince those around them.” This sentence, for Dugin, captures the American spirit, in which the subject plays a far lesser role than in Europe. While Dugin despises this form of thinking, he nonetheless appreciates its creative streak and its potential for fighting globalism — whether in the populist fairy tale The Wizard of Oz, the mysterious Twin Peaks by David Lynch, or in the populist movements of both the Left and Right in the United States. Patriots such as Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson, along with left-wing populists like Jackson Hinkle and Caleb Maupin, value Dugin — and he values them, because they all share a common struggle: the liberation of their peoples from globalism. In this sense, there is no “pro-American turn” in Dugin’s thought, but only a logical consequence of his theory of the multipolar world — a theory that completes the Eurasianist worldview. We Germans and Europeans can take inspiration from this and, like the great statesman Otto von Bismarck, seek the eternal interests of our people rather than fixating on eternal enemy images.
(Translated from the German)
Order Alexander Dugin’s The Trump Revolution here.
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I understand the turn when framed in terms of pragmatism and strategy; however, the performative pride in “the idea of America” sharply contrasts with its current geopolitical behavior. What we are witnessing is not a retreat from globalism, but a shift toward a more aggressive imperialism, what could be described as a neo-Monroeism. Consider where Trump stands today: openly promoting the imperial acquisition of the Middle East. This is not an anomaly; it is Americanism in its purest form.
The cultural wars in America (wars we have observed for decades) have morphed into a kind of civilizational chauvinism. This new Americanism no longer merely defends values; it asserts supremacy over sovereignty itself. The strategy is clear: survival at the cost of the Other. A zero-sum geopolitical theology.
Heidegger’s notion of Machenschaft (machination) offers the most precise conceptual key. Americanism, like Bolshevism, National Socialism, or even political Zionism (Judentum), is a manifestation of the global Gestell, the enframing of Being into power. What these ideologies share is not content but structure; a nihilistic will to power masked as destiny. There is no “America,” only the will to remain American in a world that is fundamentally non-American.
Today’s America, devoured by its own internal void, staggers under an opioid war strategically fueled by China. Meanwhile, the MAGA class immerses itself in podcasts that celebrate nationalism laced with psychedelics and designer drugs. What emerges is a grotesque fusion: the evangelical will to transcendence wrapped in a haze of weed and Chinese fentanyl. A nation in delirium, intoxicated by its own mythology of exceptionalism.
This is not merely decline; it is the unfolding of Machenschaft as the last metaphysical epoch. The epiphany of American power comes not through logos or law, but through a technical-theological violence that annihilates difference. Here, Carl Schmitt’s friend-enemy distinction collapses into a planetary imposition of sameness. The enemy is no longer outside; it is any form of life that resists enframing.
È il globalismo che bisogna combattere perché annienta l'individualità dei popoli, e Dugin è il filosofo che ha fatto del multipolarismo la sua battaglia! Onore a lui che nonostante la perdita della sua amata figlia ha ancora l'energia di propugnare con forza le sue idee.