A New Foreign Policy for the United States?

Published in El Nuevo Diario
(Nicaragua) on 2 December 2016
by Gustavo-Adolfo Vargas (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Sean P. Hunter. Edited by Danielle Tezcan.
Donald Trump attacked by pouring out hatred through ignorance, racist expressions, classist anxiety and xenophobia, thus accumulating resentment from a large part of the White American populace. He probably thinks the world was created by God in order to be governed by the United States, but in reality, nobody will be able to restore what history has forever changed.

However, in spite of the crisis, one can expect many things from the new president’s understanding of the world and his conflict resolution. For Donald Trump, that past has become his present, and he needs more than rhetoric to manage it. In fact, his language has awakened expectations of change both internally and externally, giving rise to an uncontrollable series of events that will test his promises of control.

The foreign policy apparatus consists of the armed forces, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Department of State and major segments of other government departments, each one with considerable inertia and controlled by professional experts that have seen many presidents come and go. The White House National Security Council is in charge of coordinating this often chaotic conglomerate of conflicting bureaucratic interests, whose conflicts are accentuated by people of great power within the system and by special interest groups outside of the government.

With Truman and Eisenhower, there were secretaries of state (Dean Acheson and later John Foster Dulles) who acted as assistants and delegates of the president in foreign policy affairs. McGeorge Bundy with Kennedy and Johnson, and later Kissinger with Nixon and Brzezinski with Carter, were national security advisors that returned control of the foreign policy processes to the White House. This has been followed by dramatic changes from strong secretaries of state (Shultz with Reagan, and Baker with Bush senior) with unusually efficient national security advisors.

It is a process complicated by interference from supreme commanders of the armed forces as they direct foreign policy. Franklin Roosevelt fought against the system, and many times against his closest advisors (which was also the case with Kennedy and Johnson). The majority of the citizenry lack the intellectual resources to connect domestic and foreign affairs. There is a feeling of passive futility, the implied belief that it does not matter what the citizenry thinks because it has little or no effect on foreign policy.

For Trump, the immediate foreign policy task will be to adjust his rhetoric and guarantee his allies that the United States’ role in the neoliberal world order will continue. Four finalists are being considered by the president-elect to head the Department of State, one of the most powerful and high profile positions in cabinet.

The list includes the 2012 Republican [presidential] candidate, Mitt Romney, and the ex-mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani. They are also considering the ex-director of the CIA, Gen. David Petraeus, and Tennessee senator, Bob Corker.

The United States is a mosaic of cultures, a nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, non-believers, etc. According to analysts, Trump will not solve any problems: He will worsen those that already exist and will bring about more serious challenges.


Donald Trump atacaba vertiendo odio a través de su ignorancia, sus expresiones racistas, la ansiedad clasista y la xenofobia; acumulando así el resentimiento de gran parte de la población estadounidense blanca.Probablemente piensa que el mundo fue creado por Dios para ser gobernado por Estados Unidos, pero en realidad nadie podrá restaurar lo que la historia ha cambiado para siempre.

Sin embargo, a pesar de la crisis, se pueden esperar muchas cosas del nuevo presidente en lo referente a la forma de entenderse con el mundo y la resolución de conflictos. Para Donald Trump ese pasado se ha convertido en su presente y necesita algo más que retórica para manejarlo. De hecho, su lenguaje ha despertado expectativas de cambio a nivel interno y externo; cargando una serie de acontecimientos incontrolables, estibando sus promesas de controlarla.
El dispositivo de política exterior lo forman: las fuerzas armadas, la CIA, la Agencia Nacional de Seguridad, el Departamento de Estado y segmentos esenciales de otros departamentos gubernamentales, cada uno de ellos con una gran inercia considerable y controlado por profesionales expertos que han visto entrar y salir a muchos presidentes. El Consejo de Seguridad Nacional de la Casa Blanca se encarga de coordinar este agregado, a menudo caótico, de intereses burocráticos contrapuestos, cuyos conflictos se acentúan por la ocupación de algunas partes del sistema por individuos de gran poder o grupos de presión extragubernamentales.



Con Truman y Eisenhower, hubo secretarios de Estado (Dean Acheson y después John Foster Dulles) que hicieron las veces de adjuntos y sustitutos del presidente en asuntos de política exterior.McGeorge Bundy, con Kennedy y Johnson, y luego Kissinger con Nixon, y Brzezinski con Carter, fueron asesores de Seguridad Nacional que devolvieron el control de los procesos de la política exterior a la Casa Blanca. A eso le ha seguido un cambio vertiginoso debido a secretarios de Estado fuertes (Shultz con Reagan y Baker con el primer Bush) con asesores de Seguridad Nacional inusualmente eficaces.

Es un proceso que se ha complicado por la intromisión de mandos supremos de las fuerzas armadas al momento de dirigir la política exterior. Franklin Roosevelt luchó contra el sistema y muchas veces contra sus más cercanos asesores (que fue el caso de Kennedy y Johnson).Los ciudadanos en su mayoría carecen de recursos intelectuales para relacionar los asuntos internos y externos. Existe un factor de sensación de inutilidad pasiva, la tácita creencia de que da igual lo que piensen los ciudadanos porque no tiene efecto o es exiguo en la política exterior.
La tarea inmediata en el ámbito de la política exterior para Trump será la de ajustar su retórica y garantizarles a sus aliados que el papel de Estados Unidos en el orden mundial neoliberal continuará. Cuatro son los finalistas que tiene en cuenta el presidente electo para encabezar el Departamento de Estado, uno de los puestos poderosos y de mayor relieve del gabinete.
La lista incluye al candidato republicano de 2012, Mitt Romney, y al exalcalde de Nueva York, Rudy Giuliani; también estudian para ese puesto al exdirector de la CIA, el general David Petraeus, y al senador por Tennessee, Bob Corker.

Estados Unidos es mosaico de culturas, es una nación de cristianos y musulmanes, judíos e hindúes y de no creyentes, etc. De acuerdo con los analistas: Trump no solucionará ningún problema, agravará los que ya existen y traerá otros más graves.

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