Collective cognition · NOTA-COG-022
Route 66: A U-Turn?
By Carlos J. Pérez Pulido · ISHEA Institute ·
Sixty-six international organizations, one executive order: the January 2026 withdrawal of the United States read as a systemic retreat rather than a policy adjustment, and what it costs in coherence.
Note — Short piece published openly. Thinking in progress, not a result.
🛣️ ROUTE 66: U-TURN?
66 international organizations.
One executive order.
One question: is this really going back?
JANUARY 7, 2026
Trump orders U.S. exit from 66 international organizations.
Not random.
Systemic.
Exit from:
• Climate frameworks
• Migration & population agencies
• Democracy & diversity programs
• Counter-terrorism forums
Already out:
• WHO
• UNRWA
• Human Rights Council
• UNESCO
🔗 Sources: AP, Reuters | Jan 7, 2026
Executive Order signed by Trump
THE METAPHOR
Route 66.
Historic American highway.
Independence. Self-reliance. Freedom.
66 organizations.
U-turn?
That question matters.
ANALYST DANIEL FORTI
(International Crisis Group):
> “The crystallization of U.S. multilateralism:
my way or the highway”
Forti calls it crystallization.
But watch the phase change.
That’s not reversal.
That’s #regeneration.
SYSTEM SIGNAL
Every system seeks efficiency.
When a structure stops serving that goal, it doesn’t collapse—
it reconfigures.
Multilateralism was a solution for a post-1945 world.
The system no longer perceives it as efficient.
So it sheds weight.
#Thermodynamics of power, not ideology.
SELECTIVE EXIT
This is not isolation.
Staying in:
• International Telecommunications Union
• International Maritime Organization
• International Labor Organization
Why?
Standards.
Control points.
Competition with China.
Exit coordination.
Keep leverage.
Maximum freedom. Minimum constraint.
FROM MULTILATERAL TO ADMINISTERED BILATERALISM
What emerges is not chaos.
It resembles what Dr. Polo Casanova described :
bilateralismo administrado.
• No universal rules
• No neutral institutions
• Power manages relations one-to-one
• Efficiency over legitimacy
Same destination.
Different architecture.
VENEZUELA AS SIGNAL
Donroe policy (hemispheric):
When multilateral tools fail → act alone.
Venezuela isn’t the cause.
It’s the symptom.
A laboratory of the new logic.
🛣️ ROUTE 66: U-TURN?
Or a system doing what systems always do
when old structures stop working:
#regenerate.
Not backwards.
Forward.
But on a road still under construction.
#ISHEA #SystemsThinking #Route66 #Multilateralism
#DonroePolicy #VenezuelaPower #Geopolitics #PowerDynamics
In the same room — Collective cognition
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