22 | SAM MAGAZINE 4/24 THE AMERICAN ELECTIONS have left us all with two obvious questions. The first is: What do the elections mean for American foreign policy? The second: What do the elections tell us about America today? DESPITE WILD SPECULATION by pundits, often enunciated with equally wild confidence, the first question is remarkably difficult, for a number of reasons. Most obviously, President-elect Trump did not campaign on and does not seem to possess any clear, coherent, conceptual vision of the international system or of America’s role in the world. In his past policies and more recent policy pronouncements, it is hard to perceive any larger vision of the goals he seeks to accomplish – any broad, intellectually coherent account of what “winning” would mean for America or the world – apart from the amorphous notion of “making America great again.” Even retrospectively it is difficult to discern any consistent overarching strategy into which his tactical engagements with foreign policy fit. WE DO KNOW THAT he views the world outside America’s borders as a dangerous terra incognita and that he is intensely suspicious of anyone who gives the impression of taking seriously the idea of an international “community” -- and that he seems to prefer to interact with leaders whom he perceives as hard-nosed and hard-headed businessmen. Arguments that shared values or long-term interests might outweigh zero-sum calculations of immediate costs and benefits do not generally seem to resonate with him. His focus tends to be both overwhelmingly on the short term and on the purely transactional nature of the immediate issue. WE ALSO KNOW THAT Mr. Trump is deeply suspicious of America’s own foreign policy inMaking Sense of the American Elections Edward Rhodes is a professor of Government and International Affairs at George Mason University. Rhodes is best known for his research into the philosophical and cultural roots of American foreign and national security policy. Rhodes served for six years on the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, the Congressionally mandated, nonpartisan body that reviews and certifies the official, published account of American foreign policy for completeness and accuracy. KOLUMNI
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