https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/14/the-trump-doctrine-is-the-future-of-conservative-foreign-policy/
The ‘Trump Doctrine’ Is the Future of Conservative Foreign Policy
By John Fonte
FTA:
For the past two years we have seen the emergence of a coherent Trump doctrine in both words and deeds.
Weekend Long Read
There is a remarkable consistency throughout all of President Trump’s speeches, formal documents (such as the National Security Strategy) and actions of the administration.
To understand the Trump doctrine, we must begin with candidate Trump’s first major speech on foreign policy on April 27, 2016 (thus even before the Indiana primary) to the Center for the National Interest at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
All the elements of the Trump doctrine are revealed in this maiden speech. This includes reversing military decline (“We will spend what we need to rebuild our military”); an emphasis on economic strength and “technological superiority” in geo-political competition; confronting the threats from China, North Korea, Iran and radical Islam; opposing nation-building; reversing Obama’s ambivalence with strong support for Israel; ending illegal immigration; and “strengthening and promoting Western Civilization.” Finally, the candidate rejected the “false flag of globalism” and declared, “The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony.”
These core elements were expanded upon in different speeches to the United Nations, the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), in Warsaw, and elsewhere. In articulating his concept of sovereignty, Trump posited democratic sovereignty or popular sovereignty in the sense of self-government. He makes the moral argument that ultimate political authority resides in the people of a nation, not in transnational global elites nor in the always “evolving” notions of international (essentially transnational) law.
Trump notes, however, that sovereign nations have core duties to “respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation.” Thus, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela violate the sovereign duties of nation-states.
In Warsaw, President Trump presented a much broader conception of Western Civilization than the framework one often hears from secular elites in the European Union. Trump’s vision of the West encompasses not simply Brussels, Berlin, and Washington D.C. but Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem. It inncludes Christianity and Judaism, as well as the Enlightenment and modernity. It is not the Enlightenment only, but the Enlightenment plus.
Presidential rhetoric is reinforced by the actions of the administration in directly confronting China, Iran, and Russia; in withdrawing from the climate accord, the Iran deal, and the proposed withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INFT) because of Russian cheating. Trump Administration actions also include withdrawing previous cooperation with the International Criminal Court; moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; increasing military funding; and promoting energy independence and closer relations with the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe through the “Three Seas Initiative.”
For the most part, the Trump doctrine is deeply rooted in the historical traditions of American foreign policy. Its emphasis on national interests, strong military and naval power, reciprocity in trade, and the primacy of American sovereignty, were hallmarks of the foreign policy vision of statesmen such as Washington, Hamilton, Clay, Webster, and Lincoln.
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Much longer and well reasoned and researched
https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/14/the-trump-doctrine-is-the-future-of-conservative-foreign-policy/
The ‘Trump Doctrine’ Is the Future of Conservative Foreign Policy
By John Fonte
Thank you for sharing and summarizing this very interesting read. I’m looking forward to reading this soon.
Great tagline.
For you...
André Rieu - Christmas in London (2017)
https://youtu.be/7gO67YCECe4?t=883
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Entirety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gO67YCECe4
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Youtube André Rieu Christmas search result:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=andre+rieu+christmas+
https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/14/the-trump-doctrine-is-the-future-of-conservative-foreign-policy/
The ‘Trump Doctrine’ Is the Future of Conservative Foreign Policy
By John Fonte
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Nailed it:
“Globalism” = “Transnational Progressivism.”
And:
“Future political conflict between American conservatives and transnational progressives is inevitable.”
Finally:
“Ultimately, conservatives need to recognize they have two sets of global competitors, the hard competitors of geopolitics and geo-economics and soft competitors—the transnational progressives, the globalists, the post-sovereigntists, whatever one wants to call them. These soft competitors also challenge all that American conservatives hold dear.”
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Great article. Thanks, Mairdie.