MD tviti od 28.5.2017
Trump težave doma so znane, zdaj jim dodaja še svetovne z ?: liderstva ZDA, G7-multilateralizma NATO+EU partnerstva… https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/donald-trump-s-flying-circus-2017-05
2/ »Donald Trump's Flying Circus« Zdaj ni dilem, ZDA+svetu se je zgodil Trump. Edina svetovna velesila=nepredvidljiva-nezanesljiva-drugačna
3/ Svet se bo odzval. Kitajska z OBOR, Japonska+Indija s TPP11-zda+?, EU z neodvisnostjo, Rusija in Islam ostajata? Regionalizem vs globaliz

 

Project Syndicate, MAY 26, 2017      (Excerpt by MD) 
With his mounting domestic scandals in tow, Donald Trump spent the past week overseas, on his first foreign trip as US president. Despite the cordial welcome Trump received from America’s allies, it is becoming increasingly clear that US global leadership will suffer under his administration.

First, Trump shocked the world by brazenly firing the FBI director, James Comey. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been appointed as a special counsel to lead the Justice Department’s investigation. Next, as Trump’s domestic challenges piled up, he traveled abroad for the first time as president, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel, NATO headquarters in Belgium, the Vatican, and Italy for a meeting of the G7. And, as one might expect, Trump’s meetings with world leaders highlighted questions about the future of America’s international role that are no less pressing than those his presidency faces at home.

Bernard-Henry Lévy highlights signs which suggest that “public disgust” with Trump’s performance is growing. “For Trump,” Levy writes, “the real danger will come as the crowd he captivated and captured during the campaign begins to turn on him.”

The US presidency is “a pillar of the international order” that provides “direction and guidance”, such that “when a US president speaks, people listen”, he represents “a singular voice in world affairs.”

“The threat posed by Russia is the main feature of European international relations today,” Michael Mandelbaum argues. NATO leaders, with whom Trump met on Thursday need to know that Trump “is aware of the basic facts of European affairs;” and they need to see “signs that he is prepared to exercise the kind of leadership that NATO needs now.”

Trump has made his affinity for authoritarian leaders abundantly clear by abandoning human-rights promotion as a goal of US foreign policy. Rex Tillerson “indicated that the US will no longer emphasize human rights when it interacts with other countries on security and economic issues.” In Arieh Neier’s view, condoning authoritarian governments’ repressive practices is not only immoral; it “could damage US national-security and economic interests over the long term, by undermining America’s global respect and prestige.”

Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that Saudi Arabia – an authoritarian monarchy with one of the world’s worst human-rights records – was Trump’s first official foreign destination. While Trump was in Riyadh, he addressed a meeting of representatives from predominantly Sunni Muslim countries, delivering a speech in which he railed against Shia-led Iran. Trump’s hardline approach to Iran has fueled fears that his administration could scuttle the nuclear deal concluded in 2015. Still, even if Trump is all bark and no bite, the fate of the nuclear agreement will also depend on what happens in Iran in the coming years.

Further east, China, too, is stepping up its international engagement. In the days before Trump’s trip, China hosted a summit to launch a new, Chinese-led era of global development. On May 14-15, world leaders from North Africa to Central Asia and the South Pacific met for a summit on China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, a large-scale infrastructure and investment program that is meant to connect Asia, Africa, and Europe. OBOR, at “more than 12 times the size of the Marshall Plan,” has “no parallel in modern history.” And many of China’s neighbors are not on board with OBOR. “Territorial disputes in the South China Sea loom particularly large; but China’s footprints in Africa and Latin America are also drawing heightened scrutiny.” And this scrutiny has raised questions about “the biggest issue of all – whether China fills a hegemonic void created by the isolationist ‘America first’ approach adopted by Trump.”

India and Japan, belong to the third camp. If they can “show that they are ready and willing to bear the costs of maintaining the region’s balance of power,” Minxin Pei writes, they can “prevent the emergence of a Sino-centric Asia.” The 11 remaining TPP signatories (after Trump abondened it) can form a new free-trade bloc, their combined GDPs will almost equal China’s. And he predicts that other countries such as “South Korea and Indonesia will be tempted to join” should such a project get off the ground.