During
Donald Trump’s first week as US president, he enacted controversial campaign
pledges sending shock waves around the world. Exactly as promised, Trump banned
entry to the US from seven Muslim countries for 90 days and suspended refugee
admissions for 120 days, he began repealing and replacing ‘Obamacare’, he cancelled
the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, and he ordered the building of a huge
wall on the Mexican border coupled with arrogant promises that Mexico “would
pay for the wall”, even though the Mexican president refused this and cancelled
his planned visit to the US. Furthermore, much of the rhetoric from the White
House during this first week was wild, and US policy toward China, Russia,
Europe and international organizations such as NATO and the UN is in doubt.
The
most visible agenda of the new administration appears to be the white Christian
“America first” nationalism of the ‘alternative right’, while the traditional
conservative Republican agenda that dominates the US Congress takes second
place. Trump has established supporters close to the alternative right at the
heart of the White House. These include his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who ran
Trump’s online media campaign and whose Orthodox Jewish upbringing helped to
protect Trump from charges of anti-Semitism during the election campaign. The
White House Senior Advisor
Kellyanne Conway, and the chief strategist Stephen Bannon represent the
alternative right even more openly. They were appointed on the same day to lead
the Trump campaign and have a long association with Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who
were major donors behind Trump’s campaign. Robert and Rebekah Mercer also fund an
‘alternative right’ media site called Breitbart News, whose editor was
Stephen Bannon before he was appointed to Trump’s campaign, and they issued
a statement to the Washington Post in October, which warned of an “apocalyptic
choice that America faces on November 8th. We have a country to save and there
is only one person who can save it. We, and Americans across the country and
around the world, stand steadfastly behind Donald J. Trump.”
The
White House is now dominated by a faction that threatens traditional conservatives
on key issues such as globalization, free-trade and Russia. An example of the
tension in the Republican Party came after Trump’s joint press conference with
the UK Prime Minister, which left open the possibility that sanctions against
Russia might be lifted. Later, Republican Senator John McCain, who is chairman
of the Armed Services Committee, demanded: “For the sake of America’s national
security and that of our allies, I hope President Trump will put an end to this
speculation and reject such a reckless course.” What, therefore, is holding the
conservatives and the alternative right together when much threatens to divide
them?
Clues
can be found in a book, published a couple of weeks ago, by Richard Haass, who is
the president of the highly influential, bipartisan “Council on Foreign
Relations.” Richard Haass is critical of Trump’s rejection of free trade and
globalization, and yet his book, “A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy
and the Crisis of the Old Order” explains that the world is becoming more
dangerous and multi-polar and that the US will need a new version of the
current concept of sovereignty.
Formerly, intervention in a sovereign state was justified only on the
basis of human rights, but now Haass argues that globalization mandates a
greater right to intervene in the affairs of other states.
The
rhetoric of Trump is dangerous according to Richard Haass, but perhaps it
serves Haass’s vision, as the chaos Trump is creating by challenging noisily the
‘old order’ could put the last nail in the coffin of 400 years of Western
theories of statecraft since the Treaty of Westfalia, and a new order could be
built upon the ruins of Trump’s ‘alternative right’ adventure if it is taken
over from him at the critical moment. More likely, the aware US politicians and
capitalists are working to gradually realign Trump’s administration and the
traditionalists to their own vision and will compromise over free-trade. The
current edition of Foreign Affair, which is a policy magazine of the
Council on Foreign Relations, indicates a bold engagement with Trump. The
article by Doug Bandow, entitled: “Trump and U.S. Alliances” is particularly relevant
where it says: “Trump should adopt a more ambitious agenda. He should call on
other nations not just to do more on their own behalf but also to take over
responsibility for their own defense.”
Dr Abdullah Robin
Written for Ar-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 115
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