What Trump’s View of Canada Reveals About His Foreign Policy Doctrine

https://globalaffairs.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/what-trumps-view-canada-reveals-about-his-foreign-policy-doctrine

Posted by casualphilosopher1

2 comments

  1. SS

    Trump’s views on Canada likely originate not from personal animus or geostrategic thinking, but from two core features of Trump’s general approach to foreign policy.

    1. First, Trump has a transactional mindset to foreign policy that leads him to despise free-riding. This has long been a characteristic of Trump, as captured in his New York Times full-page ad back in 1987, where he asserted that a “little backbone” could address how the rest of the world was taking advantage of the United States.

    2. But Trump’s view of Canada as a state to be bullied or even annexed possibly runs further, and this leads to the second core feature of Trump’s general approach to foreign policy: His 19th-century view of the United States and its role in the world. This is not meant as a figurative statement. He has been explicit in stating that the United States was its wealthiest and most prosperous at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. It’s the period that serves as the “again” in his “Make America Great Again” campaign. Following from that view, Trump thinks the United States should go back to the policies of that time, which included high tariffs and territorial acquisition.

  2. Trump is a bully, but his biggest weakness is that he isn’t willing to go into the red, and that is why he folds so easily. Trump dislikes wars because they are costly, not because of any moral reluctance to kill people.

    The way Trump is focusing on Hemispheric defense, like threatening Venezuela with Invasion, trying to force Central American countries to take in illegal migrants, threatens the peace of what once was a relatively peaceful region. Trump’s quest for security in the Americas makes other countries in the Americas feel less safe, and their response to America’s actions will only prompt Trump to double down. It becomes a self-encouraging feedback loop/

    , you end up antagonizing your neighbors,

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