President Trump’s foreign policy so far seems to be benefiting America’s opponents and leaving its allies bewildered.
The conclusions of the “The Future of America’s Global Role” debate is unanimous. Current American foreign policy is erratic and is leaving plenty of space for Russia and China to exert its influence all over the globe. Lack of consistency has created an atmosphere in which American allies find it hard to trust Washington and is causing severe doubt in the intentions of President Trump’s actions. Moscow and Beijing are aware of this and are slowly increasing their role in regions that were until recently a sole purview of the United States.
The fourth panel on the role of the United States in the world, held at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, has attracted many experts on foreign policy, Loren DeJonge Schulman, deputy director of studies at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, among others. Schulman, who served as a Senior Advisor to National Security Advisor Susan Rice in President Obama’s administration, has stated that the U.S. diminishing role in international affairs doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
“I think the global perception has gone from the U.S. being a reliable partner, and someone that many countries would aspire to emulate in some ways, to someone who is an unreliable partner,” said Schulman. “That is not necessarily a bad thing … It is good, in some ways, for people to think that the United States is not going to solve every problem for us constantly.”
Anna Simmons, from Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, agrees with Schulman.
“This business of us going around the world foisting our conception of how other people live on them is only causing us more problems rather than helping us solve anything,” she said.
Trump’s administration has been forced to interfere in global affairs more than once, despite president’s America First platform in which he ran. North Korea, Syria, and Jerusalem are just a few of the issues President Trump encountered in his first year in office. Recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel seems to have caused the greatest damage to America’s reputation and possibly made peace in the Middle East unachievable goal.
As other nations obtain more power and start to exert their influence in international theater, it would appear that the American dominance is bound to deteriorate. This can make the current situation a sort of preparation for the time where United States is no longer a sole superpower, according to John Schuessler, an associate professor in the department of international affairs at Texas A&M.
“I don’t see as a choice where we have a question on who we’re going to hand off the reins to,” he said.
Source: politico.eu
