Trump Pushes a New International Order Based on U.S. Bullying
By Heather Hurlburt
@natsecHeather
May 22, 2018
10:06 am
Buckle up, everyone. This is the week that the Trump administration’s plan to remake international relations in its own bellicose, America First image hits its biggest tests. South Korean president Moon Jae-in is set to arrive in Washington on Tuesday as as the administration tries to nail down the arrangements for President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Last week Washington and Beijing announced a sweeping new trade understanding, but there are serious doubts about whether it can deliver. In another region of the world — which is being closely watched by both Beijing and Pyongyang — the Trump administration unveiled its vision of what happens now that it’s pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement.
It’s fashionable to deride Trump and his team as having no plans, no strategy, and no long view on international affairs. But this misses something important. Trump, as well as the team around him, appears to have taken it as an article of faith that they are tougher negotiators, and more credible when threatening U.S. force, than the presidents of both parties who preceded them. They believe military might is by far the most important force in international relations, and that the United States should use and threaten it more to get its way. Their view of who the “America” is that U.S. foreign policy supports and defends is more narrow, and thus has less in common with the people of the world beyond our shores. That’s why they’re so skeptical of win-win outcomes, and the international norms and institutions that make compromise possible.
This was apparent in the first foreign policy matter the White House addressed on Monday: what happens post–Iran deal. It’s only been two weeks since Trump took down the six-party accord blocking Tehran’s nuclear weapons program — not coincidentally, Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement. After days of embarrassing media coverage quoting insiders and allies saying, “There is no ‘plan B,’” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rolled one out in a speech to the Heritage Foundation — though it was basically just a U.S. wish list wrapped around a call for regime change.
Pompeo’s plan B for Iran didn’t include the outline of a stronger deal, or any deal at all. Instead, it contained a list of 12 things Iran must do: stop enriching uranium for any purpose, peaceful or military; allow inspectors to visit any site in the country uninhibited; end its support for proxy forces such as Hezbollah and other guerrilla groups in Syria.
Pompeo didn’t offer a timeline, or a strategy, or a forum in which the U.S. and other nations could pressure Teheran to accept these terms. Nor did he mention anything Iran might get in return for taking these steps — which is usually how negotiations work. Instead, he suggested that “the Iranian people would set the timeline” — one of many not-so-subtle references to the idea that Iran’s government is failed and illegitimate, and should be replaced via a popular uprising. Pompeo even called particular attention to the fight for women’s rights in Iran, which might have been more impressive if it didn’t highlight the administration’s thunderous silence as its Saudi allies rounded up 30 years of women’s rights activists last week.
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https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/trump-pushes-new-international-order-based-on-u-s-bullying.html
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