by Saurav Raj Pant
The 2020 presidential race is heating up while Trump is busy blending
immigration issues, U.S.-China trade war, and Iran as well as the Israel-Palestine
peace talks. All these pertinent issues have one factor: President Trump’s
reactionary attitudes towards the established American containment policy.
Trump’s unsuccessful downplays of Venezuela and Iran do not serve America
well; instead, they destabilize the region. The ‘Israeli occupancy’ over the Golan
Heights and endorsement by Trump have created a new hotspot of conflict in the
Israel-Palestine region, which is already volatile.
Recently, Trump’s claim of exoneration from the Mueller report and
disinterest in reading the full report have created a sense of provocation among the
public to release the full report. All the ‘mess’ that he makes in foreign and
domestic policies makes him a ‘never’ forgotten ‘character’ in the U.S. presidential
list. After his succession (let’s say after 8 years), the new US President must build
the base again. His detachment from Europe has created a ‘vacuum’ after post-
soviet era for the first time in history on the issues of the Trans-Atlantic security.
Do France and Italy still have to ‘stick’ to the US security umbrella in Europe? The
answers are tough. His mere belief in the world economic system, which the US
has created, has been affecting the world economy in the form of the China-Russia
trade war (although they are currently under negotiation). His ‘distant and
unpredictable’ attitude has made India ‘irritated and current Indian Prime Minister
Modi is ‘playing’ different cards such as Russia and Iran for fulfilling their vested
interest of oil and weapons.
Trump’s economic policies— tax cuts benefiting rich American
neighborhoods and woes to revive the U.S. economy overnight— are showing their
“real” results now. Increasing interest rates by the Fed resulted in a massive flow
of money to the United States but created a sense of confusion by the investors
whether or not to invest on the US because of Trump’s ‘hot-wave’ war against
China; making the world economy unstable. His ‘CAATSA’ isn’t working well.
India is ‘confident’ and doing in its own way. Following the ‘assertiveness’ of
India and Turkey to continue ‘dealing’ with Russia, he had ‘currency war’ against
India and Turkey but these actions proved more ‘counter-productive’ to the US
alone. This has further distant the India and Turkey. India balanced its ‘currency
devaluation’ via support from Japan. Underlining these challenges, US senators are
now planning to make India as the ally of the NATO to put India on the Western
security umbrella—an further effort to detain Indian closeness to Russia. Trade
war with China and ‘impressing’ plan for India isn’t paying back greatly to the US.
Sometimes in a closed secret meeting, he had made joke about the sovereignty
status of the Nepal and Bhutan—that they are the part of the India so as to value
India for its great strategic importance in South Asia and Indo-pacific strategy.
But, this action has made more repercussion.
Recently, Mike Pompeo visited several Arab states to build a new military
alliance led by the Saudis in which Israel will also remain on the same table to
detain (not deter?) Iran. This alliance is often labeled as a new ‘Middle East
strategy’. But this strategy seems only ceremonial because it lacks ‘real time’ data
of the dangers the United States faces from Iran. His recent use of the word
‘bombarding’ against Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization
appears to be ‘out of the scope’ from the US intelligence reporting. His action may
be guided with the intention of regime change in Iran by provocation and in this
regards his ‘deep state’ lobbying could have played well in the White House.
Following this event, he has failed to build a perfect vigilance measure to counter
perceived Chinese intellectuals of ‘spying’ during exchange programs in the U.S.
as well as technological hacking tools used against the US. Everywhere, he is
becoming a “loud” guy with a mere cutting-edge policy.
Nevertheless, Trump now has a ‘shutdown’ policy of ‘countering’ or
‘damaging’ what his predecessor has established for the US. Will his shutdown
policy of established notions creates difficulties for his successor in the future? It
will be interesting to watch.
