Donald Trump’s refusal to recognize the high probability that the Russian government acted to interfere in the 2016 US Presidential Election to his benefit erodes the new President’s credibility. Although Mr. Trump sees accusations against Russia as a political threat to the legitimacy of his Presidential, his unapologetic criticism of the CIA’s findings is driving the GOP and the intelligence community to join those questioning his competency, i.e. his ability to understand the threat of Vladimir Putin and cyber warfare.
Seizing upon his very public dissent from the conclusions of the America’s Intelligence Apparatus, Trump is also pushing for reforms to America’s top spy agency. In turn, this actually helps discredit the very real need for reforms to America's national security apparatus. Due to the often secretive nature of national security, critical mistakes, e.g. nuclear weapons in Iraq, wrongdoings, and overreach, America’ national security apparatus has spent years undermining its own credibility, but its conclusion that Russia tried to hack the 2016 Election is reasonable.
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Donald Trump’s largely unexpected victory in the 2016 US Presidential Election has injected a great deal of political-driven uncertainty in terms of US policy, international affairs, and economics. Given the experience and skills of billionaire-businessman Donald Trump, the priorities of his Administration should center on economic issues, such as tax, budget, and regulatory reform. Like Barack Obama, who sought to address economic issues such as the Great Recession and healthcare reform, Trump will likely be pulled away from areas where he is strongest thanks to pressing foreign policy and global security concerns.
Overlapping issues like trade will, therefore, receive a great deal of attention in the Trump Administration and offer Mr. Trump an opportunity to excel. While Hillary Clinton was anti-TPP as well, her once anti-free trade predecessor Barack Obama had been convinced to adopt TPP as means to balance the costs and benefits of tariff-free trade, which left open the possibility that TPP could be adapted and still adopted under a Clinton Administration. As such, Trump’s abandonment of TPP is probably the greatest source of political-driven uncertainty in the global economy. The so-called Brexit, i.e. the exit of Great Britain from the Europe Union, is probably the second greatest source of political-driven uncertainty at this time. The handling of the Brexit offers some useful lessons in handling US trade going forward. “Globalists,” also known by the traditional term “internationalists,” have emerged in the Trump Era of politics as the enemy of nationalist forces. Internationalists were once seen as the answer to the global threat of increasingly ruinous wars, yet they have now become the symbol of unresponsive and unaccountable government that is far too concerned with foreign affairs to address domestic issues. The anti-globalist movement, which has coalesced around US President Donald Trump, seeks to ensure the People are the top priority of government; however, those who advocate for the dismantling of international institutions also threaten the security and prosperity of their own nations.
Although anti-globalist and nationalist movements can help reign in imbalances through much needed recalibrations of diplomatic and trade relations, they can quickly become a threat. After all, nations that pursue their own interests at the expense of others tend to conflict with other nations, which is what fuels conflicts like the Ukraine Crisis and the South China Sea Crisis. A world at war is a far greater threat than a relatively stable International Community that seeks to use diplomatic channels to address and resolve conflicts. It is a failure of internationalists to adequately address the domestic interests of nations that fuels the anti-globalist movement. To understand the anti-globalist movement, it is help to recognize nations are like families. |
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April 2020
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