The landscape of the US has never been more divided along political fault lines as in this election cycle. It comes as no surprise then, that cross-party support for initiatives such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement have exacerbated the idea that Washington is out of touch.
Consensus can be frustrating to those voters who find themselves without realistic representation on issues of great importance. The nomination of Donald Trump and the victories of Bernie Sanders, sit in testament to the power of such sentiment. Consensus can be frustrating, yes, but there are times when it exists for a reason.
Foreign Policy Maxims
While the specifics of foreign policy might be debatable, certain truths that we hold to be self-evident have been in use for decades. We live in a world torn asunder by warfare and strife. Still, no major power has waged war with one another since the end of WWII. The cost of war became too high and systems were put in place to ensure that WWIII never occurred. Policy makers ran through scenarios, consulted experts, conducted tests and signed treaties. They planned for everything. Well, almost everything. Nothing could have prepared them for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump Could Destroy the World
True to form, Trump’s approach foreign policy has been as inconsistent as it has been incoherent. Knee-jerk reactions flying in the face of conventional wisdom have earned him the admiration of both Vladimir Putin and the political elite of North Korea. More respectable authorities on such matters remain less convinced.
Nuclear Non-proliferation
The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, in force since 1970, sought to limit access to nuclear weapons. Nations already in possession of such weapons agreed not to help other nations acquire them. With a few notable exceptions, the treaty has been a rousing success.
Trump of course, remains unconvinced of this fact. In March, he suggested that Japan, a country constitutionally forbidden from the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes, should create its own nuclear deterrent. Allies in Asia were told they should not rely on American protection unless they were prepared to take on more of the cost. That the withdrawal of troops from the region flies in the face of deterrence theory goes without saying. Yet even such a momentous, idiotic action would pale in comparison to what would come next. The US would lose any kind of escalation control and with US forces stationed at home, according to Van Jackson:
“Every crisis or conflict would represent a 21st century version of the massive retaliation doctrine since no tailored solutions, deterrence forces, or small troop deployments would be possible.”
Donald Trump’s Flip Flops On A Black Sea Beach
Not content to overthrow the basis of a Post War settlement that has maintained peaceful relations for over 70 years, Trump took some time out of his not-so-busy schedule to spend a minute thinking about the geopolitical map of Europe. Despite the fact that no serious commentator has suggested that the US and its allies should attempt to liberate Ukraine using direct force, Trump felt the need to state the obvious by suggesting that taking back the Ukraine would result in World War III.
Of course, even so asinine an observation was in itself a reversal of a prior talking point since back in March on the NBC today show he had insisted that the land grab should not have happened and that:
“We should definitely be strong; we should definitely do sanctions.”
Or perhaps we should not. It’s honestly getting hard to tell.
Last week, Trump’s ever precarious hold on consistent policy was once again on display:
“The people of Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were.”
Trump’s somewhat dilute relationship with the facts makes it difficult to find out exactly where he heard this from. Perhaps he was referring to a March 2014 vote held in Crimea? Unfortunately, the 99.5% vote in favor of such a merger is not only highly suspect, it’s almost certainly illegal.
A Muddled Response
Trump is correct about one thing, storming into Ukraine, antagonizing the world’s second largest nuclear power, would almost certainly lead to WWIII. Yet such thinking demonstrates the workings of an unstable mind. His bizarre desire to please dictators, his claims that NATO is obsolete, his applauding of the disastrous Brexit decision; all point to a man who is dangerously unaware of geopolitical realities.
Across the board Trump has called for more nuclear weapons, a deterioration in response times, and reduced flexibility. Above all, he maintains a fundamental lack of clarity and vision that would make this world a much more dangerous place to live in. More chilling is the apparent admission that Trump does not seem to understand why the use of nuclear weapons might not be such a hot idea. Wednesday saw MSNBC host Joe Scarborough relating a story that Trump had asked an unnamed foreign policy adviser three times why nuclear weapons could not be used.
Featured image via Wikimedia available under a CC Attribution-ShareAlike license.
