| | | | Fareed: We Now Have a Trump Doctrine. It's Not Good | | "We now have a Trump Doctrine, and it is, at least in its conception and initial execution, the most radical departure from a bipartisan U.S. foreign policy since 1945," Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column.
"In the wake of two of the deadliest wars in human history, with tens of millions killed and much of Europe and Asia physically devastated, the United States tried to build a new international system. It created institutions, rules and norms that would encourage countries to solve their differences peaceably — through negotiations rather than war. It forged a system in which trade and commerce would expand the world economy so that a rising tide could lift all boats. It set up mechanisms to manage global problems that no one country could solve. And it emphasized basic human rights so that there were stronger moral and legal prohibitions against dehumanizing policies such as those that led to the Holocaust.
Yet, "from the start of his political career, Trump has seemed unaware of this history and ignorant of these accomplishments."
| | Trump's Missed Opportunity: The Economist | | President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris accord is a "severe blow to America's interests and standing," The Economist editorializes.
"The tragedy, as so often with Mr Trump, is that if he were only more like the pragmatic problem-solver he claims to be, he could have done some real good. Climate policy, a jerry-rigged system of subsidies and compromises, in America and everywhere, needs an overhaul. A growing number of Republicans want a revenue-neutral carbon tax. As this newspaper has long argued, that would not only be a better way of curbing pollution but also boost growth. A truly businesslike president would have explored such solutions. Mr Trump has instead chosen to abuse the health of the planet, the patience of America's allies and the intelligence of his supporters." - For more on the decision, watch GPS this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN, when Fareed is joined by former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, CNN economics analyst Rana Foroohar, and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass.
| | No, Brexit and Trumpism Aren't the Same Thing | | | Angela Merkel and other Europeans are wrong to lump Brexit and Trump-style populism together, writes John Lloyd for Reuters.
"Brexit is not Trumpism. Leaving the EU is likely an economic mistake, perhaps of large proportions, but it is not an undemocratic one," Lloyd argues. "It is fueled by citizens feeling somewhat disenfranchised in their political as well as in their economic lives, insisting that their politics must be transparent, their representatives (liked or disliked) known to them and the inputs and outcomes of the political process clear – none of which is true of the EU. They don't want to make war on Westminster, as many Trump supporters wish to on Washington, but instead to reclaim the House of Commons as the nation's central political chamber." | | Trump's Misguided Embassy Move: WSJ | | President Trump's decision not to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem may have been in keeping with his predecessors' approach, but it has undermined U.S. credibility, the Wall Street Journal editorializes.
"Moving the embassy to the actual capital of the Jewish State is not the most important U.S. priority in the region. But because Mr. Trump made such a point of it in the campaign -- vowing that he would make good where others had backed down -- the waiver damages American credibility. As President Obama's infamous red line in Syria illustrated, the world is more dangerous when Presidents show they don't mean what they say."
| | French President Emmanuel Macron may have misread Vladimir Putin's intentions in paying an early visit to France, writes Marie Mendras for the Moscow Times.
"Putin was seeking honor and respect, recognition of his stature as dean of the 'concert of nations,' and also a benign French response to his aggressive military policies for 'restoring legal order and peace,' in Syria and Ukraine," Mendras writes.
"Putin was not looking for a frank, honest discussion on issues of war and peace. And he certainly did not expect Macron to open the press conference with strong criticisms of state violence against gay men in Chechnya and to hint that he, Putin, should fix this." | | The Other Problem with China's New Cyber Law | | China's new cyber security law is first and foremost about tightening control of its people. But it will also make it harder for Western companies wanting to do business in the country, the Financial Times editorializes.
The law "is ostensibly aimed at protecting the privacy of China's 730 million internet users. In reality it will enshrine the state's right to snoop on anyone who logs on to the internet and will force all companies operating in the country to be complicit in this," the FT says.
Yet, "while Beijing's primary goal is certainly tighter control over its own people, the law also acts as a non-tariff barrier for a range of global companies operating inside China. By requiring that companies store all data collected in China on servers based in the country, the government is heavily favoring domestic competitors. Given the widespread, and in many cases state-sponsored, abuse of intellectual property rights that persists in China, a separate requirement that companies hand over their source codes to the government effectively shuts many of them out of the market."
| | Japan's Troubling Milestone | | Japan announced a troubling milestone Friday – last year was the first on record that the number of births in the country had dipped below one million, the New York Times' Jonathan Soble reports.
"After Japan's population hit a peak of 128 million at the start of the current decade, it shrank by close to a million in the five years through 2015, according to census data. By 2060, demographers expect the Japanese population to plunge by a third, to as few as 80 million people — a net loss of a million a year, on average."
| | America's "Jumbled" Asia Message | | A "jumble of messages" has left America's Asian friends and adversaries alike in the dark about what exactly a Trump presidency means for the region. Defense Secretary James Mattis can help fix that in a much-anticipated speech in Singapore tomorrow, writes Abraham Denmark in Foreign Policy.
"What the Asia-Pacific requires from the United States is clarity and commitment. Does the United States continue to have significant interests in the region? Will the United States commit the necessary resources and attention to ensure that international law is upheld? How will the United States prevent further coercion, aggression, militarization, and island building? How will it prioritize the need to cooperate with China on North Korea, going against the more competitive dynamics in the South China Sea and elsewhere? How would the United States like to see these issues resolved?
"The region is looking to Mattis to address these questions. If left unaddressed, that will come across as an answer as well." | | | | | | |
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