Donald Trump has revived a reckless shift in U.S. foreign policy by announcing its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed in 1987. The agreement authorized the destruction of thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of up to 5,500 kilometers (3,418 miles) and prohibited their manufacture. Now, Trump accuses Putin’s Russia of not complying with the terms of the treaty and has triggered a crisis that could culminate in an arms race. All eyes are on China, which has spent years building its army up into one of the most powerful in the world. International diplomacy and treaties are always preferable to belligerent threats. Even more so if those threats are on a nuclear scale.
The challenge for Washington is no longer whether it possesses sufficient capabilities, but whether the political system can align those capabilities behind a coherent long-term priority.
History has never witnessed a leader quite like Donald Trump — a mix of ignorance, arrogance immorality, brazenness, insensitivity and sheer stupidity.
The challenge for Washington is no longer whether it possesses sufficient capabilities, but whether the political system can align those capabilities behind a coherent long-term priority.
The Beijing summit did not produce a major agreement between the great powers on the region, but it firmly established that Middle Eastern crises are now deeply tied to the great-power dialogue.
History has never witnessed a leader quite like Donald Trump — a mix of ignorance, arrogance immorality, brazenness, insensitivity and sheer stupidity.
The challenge for Washington is no longer whether it possesses sufficient capabilities, but whether the political system can align those capabilities behind a coherent long-term priority.
The Beijing summit did not produce a major agreement between the great powers on the region, but it firmly established that Middle Eastern crises are now deeply tied to the great-power dialogue.