Source: Dawn

Trump’s approach to foreign policy is a reversion to the ruthless use of US military power and economic coercion in the 19th and 20th centuries to secure the strategic advantages that made America ‘great’. But the world is no longer one where the US can dictate its will. Military and economic power is more widely distributed today, between the US, China, Europe, Russia and several emerging nations. Foreign military interventions, unless undertaken with local support, can be disastrous, as evident from the quagmires in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Asymmetric warfare has emerged as an effective avenue for the weak to inflict pain on more powerful adversaries.

The world today is also interdependent. Trade is a complex web of discrete and mutually reinforcing cross-national production and consumption. Mercantilist policies can disrupt these production/consumption chains to mutual detriment. The world also confronts several common challenges — climate change, poverty and nuclear conflict — which can only be addressed collectively by the international community.

It is uncertain if Donald Trump will be made cognisant of these realities once in office. The team he has chosen consists of mostly those who have shaped his regressive positions. There is thus little assurance that Trump’s tweets will give way to well-considered policies.

Ignorant aggression has caused the downfall of many great nations and empires in the past. Does Donald Trump herald the decline and fall of the American empire?

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