How Trump’s Foreign Policy Is Destabilizing the World
When you abandon traditional diplomacy, you get dangerous situations like the one that’s unfolding in Kashmir
Throughout the course of the Trump administration, the United States has traded grandstanding outbursts for traditional diplomacy, choosing to pick squabbles with rival world leaders rather than engage in the at-times monotonous pursuit of international relations. And a number of diplomats and foreign policy experts contend that as a result of that hubris, the word is a much more unstable place.
The White House’s foreign policy agenda leaves multiple key issues completely unaddressed through normal diplomatic means, opting to instead focus only on matters that directly involve the president’s interest and involvement — for example, tensions with Iran, the trade war with China, and a nearly singular effort to denuclearize North Korea. For everyone else, the United States has resorted to “absentee landlording,” according to a senior diplomat from a NATO ally who spoke to GEN on the condition of anonymity. The drawbacks to this approach are perhaps most clearly seen in Kashmir, where on Monday the Indian government officially drew back the state’s autonomy.
