WORLD ROUNDUPGive France Credit for its Strategic Change | Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right? | China Is Buying Gold Like There’s No Tomorrow, and more
· No, Trump Was Not Good for US Alliances. And Without Changes, Trump 2.0 Will Be Worse.
Alliances cannot be maintained without a clear understanding of what constitutes a friend and likewise what makes for an adversary, a delineation that Trump has historically blurred
· Give France Credit for its Strategic Change
The change in French strategic thinking creates a window of opportunity to redesign the European security order
· Just How Dangerous Is Europe’s Rising Far Right?
Anti-immigration parties with fascist roots and an uncertain commitment to democracy are now mainstream
· China Is Buying Gold Like There’s No Tomorrow
The global price of gold has reached its highest levels as Chinese investors and consumers, wary of real estate and stocks, buy the metal at a record pace
· The Chilling of the Fourth Estate After 10 Years of Modi
The Indian prime minister has demonstrated that there is only one form of journalism he likes
No, Trump Was Not Good for US Alliances. And Without Changes, Trump 2.0 Will Be Worse. (Lisa Homel and Ambassador Daniel Fried. Just Security)
Many of former President Donald Trump’s supporters vigorously dismiss fears that he’ll damage U.S. alliances during a second turn in office. In an April 2 Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled “Trump Was Good for America’s Alliances,” for example, former Trump White House official Alexander B. Gray asserts that the “global foreign policy elite is sowing needless fear around the world” about a second Trump term. Gray argues that Trump merely sought new solutions to old problems and pushed NATO allies to pull their weight, that Trump’s language was rough but effective.
That and similarly optimistic takes by other Trump supporters could give some inside a second Trump administration the latitude to shape a more constructive narrative of ally relationships, a sort of off-ramp from a potential wreck, but the claims won’t stand serious scrutiny. The rules-based international order that most of the world depends on, including the United States, is built on alliances. Those alliances cannot be maintained without a clear understanding of what constitutes a friend and likewise what makes for an adversary, a delineation that Trump has historically blurred.
Take NATO, the premier U.S. alliance that had kept general peace in Europe for many decades after World War II, with tragic exceptions such as the full-scale wars of the former Yugoslavia and until at least Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine and seizure of Crimea. NATO has shown remarkable resilience, celebrating its 75th birthday this year. Certainly Trump was right to push for greater military spending by NATO allies, but so were the other U.S. presidents since Eisenhower who did the same, usually to little avail. European allies should be doing more to contribute to the alliance, especially Germany, which must reverse the decline of its military capacity since the end of the Cold War.
The good news is that the trend is now moving in the right direction.
