Setting historic precedents and disrupting the existing status quo is nothing new to President Trump, just look at how he was elected. His plan to build a wall on the Southern border, his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and his recent moves to bolster tariffs against long-time U.S. allies are all examples of his unorthodox approach to foreign policy.
He claims that his goals as president are to protect the nation and strengthen its economy. So far, the economy has shown signs of significant growth, the housing market is on the rise, and unemployment is on the decline.
You would think that with all of these significant changes being brought about by Trump that he would be labeled a progressive. After all, he is breaking up the status quo which is a famously liberal-progressive trait.
But of course, there are many who see his policies as both problematic and provocative. Many have claimed recently that the course that Trump has set the United States on will lead to a break-up of the "liberal" world order established after World War II.
Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but many see the possibility as a dangerous one for the future. With anti-democratic powers such as Russia and China on the rise, it seems that the U.S. should take every chance we can take to strengthen our ties with our longstanding allies.
When it comes down to it though, our allies will never desert us. They may groan and complain about the new tariffs and trade deals that will likely be put into place soon, but the reality is they depend on us for their survival. It is because of this special relationship that we must begin getting fairer trade deals with them.
We pay for their defense!
Russia and China pose too big of a threat to any other Western or allied nation to handle on their own, and ultimately it rests with us to protect them. This being said, there is no reason why we should not try to negotiate and make peace with long-time enemies. The Cold War has been over for nearly 30 years now, the West's policies of non-negotiation should be over as well.
Perhaps it is time for a "new world order," as the media likes to term it. As with the Israel issue, the two-state solution has been tried and tried since the nation's inception 70 years ago and has consistently failed. Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem severely disrupts this plan.
Who can tell if Trump's decisions in the region may not, in fact, lead to peace?
People, especially those in the media, love to assume and pretend like they know what is going to happen based off of history and precedents. I am all for studying history of course, but even I acknowledge that history does not always repeat itself.
New methods should be tried, new deals should be made, new trails should be blazed. The so-called "world order" has remained idle long enough, and I think that a little shaking-up will do it some good.
