\u201cYou\u2019re in America now,\u201d I said. \u201cOur idea of diplomacy is showing up with a gun in one hand and a sandwich in the other and asking which you\u2019d prefer.\u201d \u2015\u00a0Jim Butcher,\u00a0Turn Coat<\/p>\n
Arms across the Pacific<\/p>\n
On Monday, Australia\u00a0and\u00a0Canada\u00a0signed a $1.75 billion export agreement to build an Australian-designed long-range radar system. This is how the Independent reported it<\/a>:<\/p>\n The deal, inked on Monday by Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and Canadian Secretary of State (Defense Procurement) Stephen Fuhr, marks the first phase of a pact to provide early warning radar coverage from the Canada-United States\u00a0border into the\u00a0Arctic.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this really means is that Australia and Canada are now partners in terms of the future development of the Over-the-Horizon Radar,\u201d Marles told reporters at the Australian Parliament House in the capital\u00a0Canberra.<\/p>\n The deal gave substance to Canada\u2019s new international philosophy. A realignment of allies that Canadian PM Mark Carney outlined in a speech in Dublin in the lead-up to the 2026 G7 meeting. In describing a new world order, Carney depicted the rupture of the post-WWII Western liberal alliance. In his words<\/a>:<\/p>\n East and West <\/p>\n \u201cIreland and Canada are navigating a global rupture, not a quiet transition. The post-Cold War world of rules-based order is breaking down. Multilateral institutions have weakened. Economic integration, from which we have benefited, is being weaponized. The international trading system, which we\u2019ve relied upon for decades, is under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n He did not mention the cause of the upheaval. He didn\u2019t have to. Everyone listening knew he was pointing at Trump.<\/p>\n Carney enumerated the challenges facing the democratic world, saying. \u201cNew technologies from artificial intelligence to cyber and quantum are changing the nature of war, the structure of economies, and the possibilities of human advancement. Climate change is no longer a warning. It\u2019s here.\u201d <\/p>\n Faced with these emerging challenges, Carney sought salvation by looking East across the Atlantic. \u201cI suggest that amidst this change, amidst this disruption, Canada, Ireland, and Europe can be pivotal, powerful, and purposeful, a force for good. Pivotal because we are the most connected region in the world to each other and to others.\u201d <\/p>\n And as the deal brokered over long-range radar shows, Carney is also looking West across the Pacific to the Antipodes.<\/p>\n Not South<\/p>\n But he is not looking South. The US and Canada may share the world\u2019s longest non-militarized border. But they no longer share a common purpose. Trump says he is \u201cAmerica First.\u201d But his policies are producing \u201cAmerica Alone.\u201d In his speculative oratory about Canada becoming the 51st state, Trump has sacrificed a mutually beneficial relationship on the altar of his erratic ambition. <\/p>\n A C. 20th man leaves the US ill-prepared for the C.21st<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s legacy will be a diminished America. Still an economic powerhouse with the world\u2019s largest military. But a nation no longer loved or feared. Trump\u2019s capricious tariffs have shaken<\/a> international faith in the dollar. His execration<\/a> of NATO and embrace<\/a> of Putin has forced the Europeans to tend to their own defense. <\/p>\n The EU was founded as an economic union. However, now that the US can no longer be trusted to uphold NATO\u2019s Article 5 guarantee, the Europeans are considering<\/a> expanding the EU\u2019s scope to include mutual defense. <\/p>\n In addition, Trump\u2019s ill-considered aggression against Iran has shown America\u2019s vaunted military to be unequaled in firepower but unable<\/a> to win. And his foot-dragging on supplying Ukraine has compelled that scrappy nation to develop<\/a> cheap weapons and invent tactics to maximize their effect. America is left exposed as a nation that knew how to win the Cold War but is ill-equipped to prosecute a modern conflict.<\/p>\n As a result, even our closest neighbor is looking elsewhere for the sort of cutting-edge military hardware America could once be relied on to supply.<\/p>\n If you combine Trump\u2019s internationally deleterious economic policies with his failed military adventurism, it shows that America\u2019s approach to diplomacy now is to show up with a gun in each hand \u2013 neither of which appears to work \u2013 and no sandwich. <\/p>\n \tWe’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.<\/p>\n We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.<\/p>\n \t\tPower matters.<\/p>\n