Editor's note: Danny Haiphong is an independent journalist and researcher in the United States. He is a contributing editor to the Black Agenda Report, co-editor of Friends of Socialist China and founding member of the No Cold War international campaign. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Renowned American journalist Seymour Hersh published the most detailed account of the September 2022 Nord Stream attack to date on February 8. According to Hersh's source, who is claimed to possess deep knowledge of the planning process, the United States skirted its laws to destroy the pipeline under the direction of U.S. President Joe Biden and prominent members of his national security team.

Hersh is an award-winning journalist with a credible record of revealing the dark truths of U.S. foreign policy. His prior work includes the exposure of war crimes in Vietnam and Iraq committed by U.S. forces in My Lai and Abu Ghraib prison. The U.S. has denied the validity of Hersh's past findings and the White House has issued brief objections to the latest Nord Stream report. White House officials have yet to provide further explanation for the report's assertions.

The latest development in the Nord Stream attack is a stark reminder of the dangers presented by a unipolar world where the U.S. acts with impunity to achieve its narrow interests. Nord Stream was a critical network of pipelines that brought two major powers in the world, Germany and Russia, closer together. The pipeline network ran beneath the Baltic Sea and delivered low-cost Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany to help power its industrial economy. Germany received more than 50 percent of its gas needs alone from the once-operational Nord Stream 1 pipeline. All of this ended abruptly with the explosion that destroyed Nord Stream in September 2022.

Hersh's report exposed details over the attack and added further credibility to global suspicions of potential U.S. involvement. The U.S. political establishment viewed Germany and Russia's energy relationship as anathema to its interests and the Biden administration has spoken about reducing Europe's "dependence" on Russia's energy supply since the Ukraine crisis began to escalate in February 2022. In a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 7, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden remarked that the U.S. would "bring an end" to Nord Stream 2. After Nord Stream was destroyed, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a "tremendous opportunity" had opened up for U.S. LNG suppliers to "wean" Europe from Russian energy. In late January 2023, U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told U.S. Senator Ted Cruz in a hearing that she was glad that Nord Stream was a "hunk of metal" at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

One of the biggest dangers of a unipolar world order is impunity. Serious allegations have been made by a credible journalist, yet the U.S. has dismissed the matter. Furthermore, the consequences of Nord Stream's destruction are equally as serious. Germany, which faced immense pressure from U.S. sanctions to cease the operations of Nord Stream even prior to the attack, is in a state of economic crisis. The International Monetary Fund forecasts Germany's economy will produce negative growth in 2023.

Hersh's Nord Stream revelations are part of an escalating conflict in Ukraine that presents steeper dangers to global stability. The U.S. has pressured EU countries to impose sanctions on Russia which have not only damaged their own economies and brought increased suffering worldwide. Germany and several other European countries have followed the U.S.'s orders to deploy heavier military equipment to Ukraine. The U.S. and NATO-led militarization in Ukraine is set to prolong a conflict that runs the risk of facilitating a direct war between NATO countries and Russia. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the doomsday clock of nuclear conflict to 90 seconds to midnight amid the Ukraine crisis.

The Ukraine conflict has underscored the risks of a unipolar world where U.S. interests remain dominant. Unipolarity ensures that certain countries are not held to account for their violations of international law. The U.S. has a proven track record of adhering to the narrow interests of private multinational corporations and the military industrial complex regardless of the consequences. A major reason why suspicions of U.S. involvement in the Nord Stream attack exist is on account of the long history of U.S. interference in the affairs of other countries.

U.S. leaders have much to answer for when it comes to Hersh's disclosures. Nonetheless, the persistence of unipolarity reinforces impunity on the world stage. Escalating conflict remains a threat to world peace. The attack on Nord Stream was an act of war. Hersh's report must be taken seriously if the world intends to prevent these attacks, and the risks they carry out in the future.

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