Trump to focus on 'peace through strength' over Obama's 'soft power' approach

[DonViejo]

President-elect Donald Trump has stacked his Cabinet with military generals, pushed for more Pentagon spending and a bigger Navy, threatened to slap tariffs on China and Mexico and, last week, suggested that he was open to expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

The aim, he has said, is to achieve “peace through strength.”

If Trump follows through with this confrontational approach, it will represent a sharp break with the multifaceted foreign policy strategy that both Democratic and Republican presidents have practiced for decades, including reliance on what diplomats call “soft power” to achieve objectives and avoid conflict. Instead, Trump views foreign policy as largely transactional, aides say, and his goal is to win — by speaking loudly and carrying a big stick.

But critics, including former Obama administration officials and foreign diplomats, said winning on the world stage requires more than bluster and intimidation and pugilistic messages on Twitter. American leadership, they said, also is about the carrots — the promotion of democratic values and building U.S.-led institutions that can address shared global challenges such as economic growth, climate change and terrorism.

“If your slogan is, ‘America first,’ other people will think, ‘What about me?’ ” said Joseph Nye, who was an assistant secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-focus-on-peace-through-strength-over-obamas-soft-power-approach/2016/12/28/286770c8-c6ce-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story.html?utm_term=.8fe476495d04&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1

[earthside]

1. Money, money, money.

I predict, however, that Trump foreign policy will be very little of that, i.e., 'foreign policy'.

It will be mostly about allowing corporations and billionaires to have the backing of the U.S. government to exploit every opening here and abroad to make lots of money.

Ramp-ups in military spending will be less about "strength" than about transferring trillions of more dollars to arms manufacturers and military contractors.