The New American Isolationism

While abandoning his allies, Trump is rehearsing a strategy of detente toward his traditional enemies, having already met with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin.

For a long time, Europe has lived under the American umbrella. First, Europe relied on the United States’ help to rebuild European economies just after World War II through the Marshall Plan. Europe counted on the United States to take care of European defense, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization being created precisely to contain the expansion of the United Soviet Socialist Republic on the European continent after the countries of Eastern Europe fell behind the Iron Curtain. As a result, Europe got used to seeing the United States play the role of the world’s policeman, and the protector of Europe from any threat, with NATO being used to interfere in the Balkans conflict beginning in1992 and even in Libya in 2011.

Donald Trump’s election has radically altered this state of affairs. This change was noticeable from his inaugural speech, in which he proclaimed the words “America first.” This is the same slogan used during World War II by people who were against any American intervention in the conflict at the time, and who managed to postpone intervention until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor made it inevitable. At the time, Trump’s words were mocked by many Europeans who spread videos showing them putting their country in second place after America. Nobody wanted to understand that Trump’s words meant a whole new policy of American nationalism and noninterventionism, for which the Europeans should have been properly prepared. Unfortunately, they were not.

Since then, Trump has shown all his contempt for international agreements and institutions, adopting protectionism as his main policy. He pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, proclaiming that the U.S. was more concerned with the inhabitants of Pittsburgh than with those of Paris, and imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, affecting trade with Europe and Canada. He has not done it yet, but it is clear that he will later tax German car imports, which could severely damage Europe’s current economic engine. While abandoning his allies, Trump is rehearsing a strategy of detente toward his traditional enemies, having already met with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin.

Curiously, this meeting comes after two summits, one of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations and another of NATO, in which Trump practically shook the foundations of these institutions. Trump thus shows much more consideration for America’s traditional enemies than for its former allies.

Even America’s oldest ally, the United Kingdom, has not escaped Trump. On his visit to London, already knowing that he was going to be met with protests, Trump reacted with his usual behavior. He attacked the London mayor, threw Theresa May under a bus with an interview in which he criticized a soft Brexit and praised Boris Johnson, and broke the rigid and established protocol for meeting with the queen. If they had had any doubts, the British were made to realize that they were no longer among Trump’s priorities.

This change is not exactly new. Lord Palmerston, a 19th-century English prime minister, said, “England has no eternal allies or perpetual enemies. England’s interests are eternal and perpetual.”* Today, Trump’s America is following this rule. Trump’s interests have been articulated — to be re-elected in 2020. Since today’s Europeans who protest against him in the streets do not vote in U.S. elections, he is quite capable of achieving exactly that.

The author is a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.

* Editor’s note: The original quote by Lord Palmerston is: “We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual …”