Posted on 04/22/2019 9:01:08 AM PDT by billorites
Two years into U.S. President Donald Trump’s tenure, there is still endemic confusion about what, exactly, his foreign policy is. Many critics blame this confusion on the president’s purported inarticulateness. Whatever one thinks of his tweets, however, the fact is that he has also delivered a number of speeches that lay bare the roots, contours, and details of his approach to the world.
A simpler—and more accurate—explanation for the confusion is that Trump’s foreign policy does not yet have a widely accepted name. Names can be useful in sorting and cataloguing ideas and in avoiding the unnecessary elaboration of things everyone already knows. But to dredge up an old philosophic argument: The name is not the thing. The underlying phenomenon is what matters; the name is just shorthand. Yet too often the U.S. foreign-policy establishment—current and former officials, international relations professors, think tankers, and columnists—uses names as a crutch. People treat names as sacrosanct categories and can’t process things not yet named.
So the fact that Trump is not a neoconservative or a paleoconservative, neither a traditional realist nor a liberal internationalist, has caused endless confusion. The same goes for the fact that he has no inborn inclination to isolationism or interventionism, and he is not simply a dove or a hawk. His foreign policy doesn’t easily fit into any of these categories, though it draws from all of them.
Yet Trump does have a consistent foreign policy: a Trump Doctrine. The administration calls it “principled realism,” which isn’t bad—although the term hasn’t caught on. The problem is that the Trump Doctrine, like most presidential doctrines, cannot be summed up in two words. (To see for yourself, try describing the Monroe, Truman, or Reagan Doctrine with just a couple of words.)
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
Trump’s foreign policy can be hailed as “Operation Gaslight”. His well-reasoned policy speeches are quite clear. His tweets put his counterparts into introspective, self-doubting defensive postures.
A simple and not long answer:
President Trump’s policies/Doctrine are pro MAGA!
The hallmark of Trump’s foreign policy is predicated in large part on his attitude toward trade, and how an imbalance of exchanges between the US and other countries ends up negatively impacting the US.
His threats to, and sometimes actual placing of tariffs on foreign nations reflects this philosophy. “Fly right or get out of my sky!”
This effort to make the playing field somewhat level has resulted in the US, for perhaps the first time in DECADES, is now self-sufficient in energy, and more fair world prices have been established all up and down the world markets. Because this action has shown up the international price gougers for the greedy gangsters they are, a lot of basic respect is again shown to America in the international arena, despite what the Democrats claim.
Let me give it a try: "America First".
I can do it in one word. Winning!
America First. The U.S. puts its own interests ahead of any other nation’s.
Excellent article, with a very thought-provoking analysis.
How many wars have started, how many soldiers have died, and how many missles have been fired from drones compared to this point in O’Bungholes presidency? Remember when democrats hated war? That was before hillary’s lobbyists and cronies made krap tons of money from it
Astounding that it would be printed in Foreign Policy. Miracles still happen!!!
DING DING DING
We have a winner!
What it is not is bowing down to every sheet wearing tinpot Goat humping, Allah FUBAR screaming Sand Uyghur and apologizing for America being America. And that is 1000% better than what we had under Queen Putt, the Marxist, Mooslim, Kenyan, Steaming Pant Load, Sissy Boy, Race Baiting Poverty Pimp.
The Trump Doctrine is no secret.
MAGA and put America first (as the American President).
The fine print includes making Americans prosperous and improving the economy. There’s only so much a President can do though. He can play Pied Piper but companies have to follow his lead. Things like raising the minimum wage only serve to work against MAGA.
More to the article's point, Trump's doctrine is "Make [insert your country here] Great Again."
That was the essence of his first foreign policy speech, that all countries should be motivated by their own interests, and that will lead to a better world for everyone.
-PJ
*** President Trump’s policies/Doctrine are pro MAGA! ***
His foreign policy is more neocon imperialism, dancing to a Piper, that is not what every day Americans want.
Do I want the US to invade Venezuela, after sanctioning it into a death spiral? No.
Do I want the US declaring Occupied Golan part of Israel so Genie Energy can drill oil for Rupert , Murdoch, Dick Cheney, Lord Rothschild, Mary Landrieu, Bill Richardson, et al? No.
Do I approve of the moderate headchoppers we armed,and supported in Syria? No.
Do I approve of our trying to make peace/negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan? No.
The latest US deaths there seem to indicate that strategy isn’t working.
Thanks!
“explanation for the confusion is that Trump’s foreign policy does not yet have a widely accepted name.“
Oh, but it does.
America First.
L
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.