Going to college in the middle of the city has so many opportunities and I was lucky enough to take advantage of one a few weeks ago. At The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, VA the Richmond World Affairs Council holds monthly events that are free to students. In December there event was a speculation about how foreign policy might change under soon to be President Donald Trump. Since it is now 2017 and Donald Trump is a few short weeks away from being president, I decided to revisit this event and think some more about how Donald Trump will handle foreign policy as President.
William W. Newmann led the event, he is a professor in the Political Science Department at VCU and he made, in my opinion, three compelling points about what might happen. He reached these conclusions based off how foreign policy has been over the past 70 years (after the United States rose to power after WW2), what Trump has done/said in the past, his choics for who will be in his cabinet.
Newmann begins by saying that “great powers want to set rules” and Trump has said he wants to be unpredictable. The United States has been a great power since the end of World War 2 which means we will want to set rules, which we have. This is shown through our involvement the United Nations. We are one of the 5 most powerful countries in the UN and we have a lot of say over what goes on in the United Nations. Since we are so powerful, other powerful (and even not so powerful) countries rely on knowing what we are going to do. This keeps anxieties about war, trade, etc down. Having a leader that wants to be unpredictable might cause problems on this front.
In his next point, Newmann mentions that the United States always said that we need to remind other countries that we are here, meaning we’re powerful don’t push us. We do this by putting troops in other countries. Trump has said he doesn’t agree/see the point of helping any country if they can do nothing for us in return. But throughout American history, we have used our troops to protect, not only Americans but human rights around the world. Now I am not in favor of using force to solve everything and even though we are supposed to be helping protect human rights (through our involvement in the UN), this doesn't mean we always do. There are flaws with this idea but we do show we are powerful. If Donald Trump stops showing that the United States is powerful that could mean that other countries could rise and become more powerful. Which I don't think he would like.
For his final point Newmann mentions free trade and how the United States was the one to encourage other countries to join us in using free trade. Donald Trump on the other hand does not want with free trade and says it is not helping us to win competition. Even though we as a country are already dependante on free trade. Most of our everyday products are from China or another country, that is what keeps them cheap. The United States can't afford to make everything in America for Americans, no matter how good it sounds. Also, the United States has been in favor of free trade for years and encouraged countries to use it as well.
None of these points are concrete because obviously Donald Trump is not offically President yet, but it's some food for thought for the months and years to come under our New Commander in Chief.
