In last week’s edition, I discussed President Trump’s newfound admiration for President William McKinley, specifically his strong stance on trade, tariffs, and American expansionism. Since writing this article, however, even further proof of a shift in foreign policy towards a more nationalistic approach has taken place. In just the past week Trump has proclaimed that he has made negotiations with Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine immediately. On the surface, an outsider may look at this international policy and praise Trump for his immediate stop of an ongoing war. However, it’s more likely that Trump capitulated and agreed to Putin retaking much of the territory that the West was fighting over.
Over the past few decades, both China and Russia have expressed and even taken action on expansionist aspirations. During this time (and really since the end of World War ll), the U.S. has engaged in foreign policy decisions that have us intervening in other countries’ political upheavals yet not trying to take them for land and claiming they’re a “lost part of an American empire.” However, with Trump being the new commander-in-chief, things certainly seem prone to significant change. As I discussed in the last article, Trump is attempting to change the general foreign policy philosophy of the United States.
A multi-centric world where all three global powers are working together is one that we haven’t seen since World War ll. However, when the three global superpowers were Britain, the United States, and France, liberal democracy was at the forefront of domestic policy. This therefore came with a certain respect and deference to the sovereignty of other nations.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States was quite clearly the singular dominant hegemonic superpower. However, today we find ourselves in an international situation where we have both China and Russia emerging as two of the most powerful nations both in terms of both wealth and military might. These countries are also highly nationalistic (unlike Britain and France). Since the United States has been the predominant liberal democracy for the past 20 years, we’ve been opposed to Russia and China on the international stage.
With Trump in office, the country has taken a massive swing towards right-leaning populism and nationalism. Already, Trump has taken actions on the international stage that place him much closer to the aspirations of Putin and Xi Jinping than any prior U.S. president. Hypothetically, if Trump, Jinping, and Putin join on international philosophy, we could be seeing an incredibly unstable international stage over the next few years.
This means the U.S. possibly taking troops out of Taiwan and letting China take it, and Russia making further moves into Ukraine in exchange for both of these countries possibly helping with Trump’s geographical expansion. We could be looking at authoritarian international politics where the three dominant countries utilize their great military and economic might to expand their land purely out of self-interest. Trump has already been draconian against his allies on the northern and southern border. Is this simply a negotiation tactic? Or a greater shift towards America becoming more aligned with Russia and China than are their own European allies?
We as citizens of the United States must keep a close eye on the tendencies of the executive branch both domestically and internationally, in the hopes of keeping our country as far away from authoritarianism as possible.
