{"id":4056,"date":"2016-05-09T07:30:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T11:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dougsbriefcase.com\/blog\/?p=4056"},"modified":"2016-05-09T07:27:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T11:27:30","slug":"trump-and-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dougsbriefcase.com\/blog\/trump-and-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Donald<\/a>

Don\u00adald Trump\u2019s recent for\u00adeign pol\u00adi\u00adcy speech reflects our love\/hate rela\u00adtion\u00adship with our allies. Cred\u00adit: businessinsider.com<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201c<\/span>Who the f*** does he think he is?Who\u2019s the f***ing super\u00adpow\u00ader here?\u201d  \u2014 <\/em>Pres\u00adi\u00addent Bill Clin\u00adton after meet\u00ading<\/a> with Israeli PM<\/span> Netanyahu in 1996<\/p>\n

Don\u00adald Trump, the GOP<\/span>\u2019s pre\u00adsump\u00adtive stan\u00addard-bear\u00ader, shares for\u00admer Pres\u00adi\u00addent Clinton\u2019s frus\u00adtra\u00adtion with America\u2019s allies.  And like Clin\u00adton, Pres\u00adi\u00addent Oba\u00adma and oth\u00aders who have occu\u00adpied the Oval Office, Trump isn\u2019t sure what to do about it.<\/p>\n

In his recent for\u00adeign pol\u00adi\u00adcy address, Trump fault\u00aded Obama\u2019s for\u00adeign pol\u00adi\u00adcy on sev\u00ader\u00adal grounds.  \u201cOur allies aren\u2019t pay\u00ading their fair share,\u201d he com\u00adplained.  His next crit\u00adi\u00adcism: \u201cOur friends are begin\u00adning to think they can\u2019t depend on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This con\u00adflict\u00aded atti\u00adtude toward our allies \u2013 that they\u2019re not doing enough for us, but we\u2019re not there for them \u2013 is hard\u00adly unique to Trump.  But rarely are the con\u00adtra\u00addic\u00adtions so obvious.<\/p>\n

Take his crit\u00adi\u00adcism of our Euro\u00adpean allies.  He notes that, aside from the Unit\u00aded States, only 4 of 28 NATO<\/span> mem\u00adbers have met their pledge<\/a> to devote at least two per\u00adcent of GDP<\/span> to mil\u00adi\u00adtary spending.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We have spent tril\u00adlions of dol\u00adlars over time \u2014 on planes, mis\u00adsiles, ships, equip\u00adment \u2014 build\u00ading up our mil\u00adi\u00adtary to pro\u00advide a strong defense for Europe and Asia,\u201d he said. \u201cThe coun\u00adtries we are defend\u00ading must pay for the cost of this defense \u2013 and, if not, the U.S. must be pre\u00adpared to let these coun\u00adtries defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a bold state\u00adment.  But in the next breath, he exco\u00adri\u00adat\u00aded the Oba\u00adma Admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion because it \u201caban\u00addoned our mis\u00adsile defense plans with Poland and the Czech Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Czech Repub\u00adlic has been a NATO<\/span> mem\u00adber since 1999.  It devot\u00aded 0.97 per\u00adcent<\/a> of its GDP<\/span> in 2015 to mil\u00adi\u00adtary spend\u00ading.  Its defense bud\u00adget hasn\u2019t reached two per\u00adcent of GDP<\/span> since 2003<\/a>.  Poland\u2019s mil\u00adi\u00adtary expen\u00addi\u00adtures hit the two per\u00adcent bench\u00admark last year, the first time since it joined the alliance in 1999.<\/p>\n

In effect, Trump is crit\u00adi\u00adciz\u00ading Oba\u00adma for doing what Trump him\u00adself believes should be done: leav\u00ading Euro\u00adpean coun\u00adtries that spend too lit\u00adtle on defense to \u201cdefend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is not alone in his incon\u00adsis\u00adten\u00adcy.  Jere\u00admy Shapiro and Richard Sokol\u00ads\u00adki of Brook\u00adings argue<\/a> that the U.S. \u201chas become so focused on main\u00adtain\u00ading its rela\u00adtion\u00adships with its allies above all else that it\u2019s for\u00adgot\u00adten what the rela\u00adtion\u00adships were for in the first place: secur\u00ading U.S. interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro and Sokol\u00ads\u00adki see this as a lega\u00adcy of the shirts-against-skins world\u00adview that pre\u00advailed through\u00adout the Cold War.  We won when a coun\u00adtry chose to ally with us; we lost when they allied with the Sovi\u00adets.  Alliances thus came to be treat\u00aded as ends in them\u00adselves, which had the per\u00adverse effect of putting the U.S. at the ser\u00advice of its weak\u00ader allies.<\/p>\n

That men\u00adtal\u00adi\u00adty sur\u00advived the fall of the Berlin Wall, but with one impor\u00adtant change: we have lost our clear\u00adly defined and broad\u00adly shared sense of nation\u00adal inter\u00adest.  The result, as Trump observed, is that \u201cwe\u2019ve lacked a coher\u00adent for\u00adeign policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elder Pres\u00adi\u00addent Bush pro\u00adclaimed a \u201cnew world order<\/a>\u201d in which the U.S. would join with oth\u00ader nations \u201cto achieve the uni\u00adver\u00adsal aspi\u00adra\u00adtions of mankind,\u201d a goal of dubi\u00adous fea\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty.  Pres\u00adi\u00addent Clin\u00adton called instead for turn\u00ading inward, using the \u201cpeace div\u00adi\u00addend<\/a>\u201d to spend more on hand\u00adouts and less on defense, all the while ignor\u00ading the rise of Islam\u00adic jihadism. The younger Pres\u00adi\u00addent Bush favored what Charles Krautham\u00admer called \u201cdemo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic real\u00adism<\/a>\u201d \u2014 pro\u00admot\u00ading democ\u00adra\u00adcy (by force, where nec\u00ades\u00adsary) as an anti\u00addote to jihadism \u2013 which led to a cost\u00adly and unpop\u00adu\u00adlar war.  Pres\u00adi\u00addent Oba\u00adma, like Clin\u00adton, aspired to \u201cnation-build\u00ading at home<\/a>,<\/span>\u201d but has found him\u00adself instead entan\u00adgled in per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adal war \u2013 from Afghanistan to Iraq to Syr\u00adia to Libya \u2013 and beset by metasta\u00adt\u00adic Islam\u00adic extremism.<\/p>\n

Trump rejects all these approach\u00ades, but has offered no clear alter\u00adna\u00adtive of his own.  He vows to \u201cview the world through the clear lens of Amer\u00adi\u00adcan inter\u00adests,\u201d but his speech leaves those inter\u00adests large\u00adly unde\u00adfined.   He says that his \u201cAmer\u00adi\u00adca First\u201d pos\u00adture will pro\u00adduce a \u201cdis\u00adci\u00adplined, delib\u00ader\u00adate and con\u00adsis\u00adtent for\u00adeign pol\u00adi\u00adcy,\u201d but he is fuzzy on the details of that pol\u00adi\u00adcy. He places a pre\u00admi\u00adum on a \u201clong-term plan to halt the spread and reach of rad\u00adi\u00adcal Islam,\u201d but he has no plan.  Instead, he vows to \u201clook for tal\u00adent\u00aded experts with new approach\u00ades and prac\u00adti\u00adcal ideas.\u201d  Good luck with that.<\/p>\n

But though his speech can be fault\u00aded for favor\u00ading plat\u00adi\u00adtudes over par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlars, it at least rec\u00adog\u00adnizes that the pur\u00adpose of for\u00adeign pol\u00adi\u00adcy is to pro\u00admote our inter\u00adests \u2013 not to spread democ\u00adra\u00adcy, bet\u00adter mankind or serve the \u201cinter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles DeGaulle famous\u00adly said<\/a> that \u201cno nation has friends, only inter\u00adests.\u201d  Our allies have long under\u00adstood that.  Our foes have as well.  The U.S. alone has a long list of friends but no clear\u00adly-defined inter\u00adests.  It is time that changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Who the f*** does he think he is?Who\u2019s the f***ing super\u00adpow\u00ader here?\u201d  \u2014 Pres\u00adi\u00addent Bill Clin\u00adton after meet\u00ading with Israeli PM<\/span> Netanyahu in 1996 Don\u00adald Trump, the GOP<\/span>\u2019s pre\u00adsump\u00adtive stan\u00ad\u00addard-bear\u00ader, shares for\u00admer Pres\u00adi\u00addent Clinton\u2019s frus\u00adtra\u00adtion with America\u2019s allies.  And like Clin\u00adton, Pres\u00adi\u00addent \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"nfd_image_url":"","nfd_onboarding_generated":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1172,1173,1285,158,157],"tags":[615,617,914,1286,1174,610,609,1203,1207,938,976,1288,134,1232,1287,1289,440],"class_list":["post-4056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2016-presidential-election","category-donald-trump","category-foreign-policy","category-national-security","category-terrorism","tag-barack-obama","tag-bill-clinton","tag-brookings-institution","tag-czech-republic","tag-donald-trump","tag-george-h-w-bush","tag-george-w-bush","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-isis","tag-islamic-state","tag-jeremy-shapiro","tag-libya","tag-nato","tag-poland","tag-richard-sokolski","tag-russia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t