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" By the time modern American presidents receive the keys to the White House, learn the identities of intelligence assets around the world, and obtain the nuclear-weapons codes, they have traditionally been well-defined, both by their long careers in public service by and an arduous election campaign. Their positions have been anchored to a coherent worldview and governing philosophy. Their character judgment has been revealed by the wide circle of experts and advisers drawn to the cause. Their policy positions have been detailed in extensive white papers. Their decision-making has been illuminated through close scrutiny of past votes and personal history. Yet despite dominating the spotlight of one of the most-watched and bitterly contested presidential campaigns in U.S. history, President-elect Donald J. Trump will enter the Oval Office on January 20 as an enigma in many important respects.
Trump is neither conservative nor neoconservative. Nor is he reliably realist, idealist, or neo-isolationist. His tightly drawn circle of loyal aides and adult children reflect only the light of the “army of one” at their center. As America’s first commander-in-chief in waiting never to have served in government or the military, Trump lacks the kind of biographical paper trail that might bring into sharper focus his vague convictions. But it’s not quiet that simple.
In March, Eliot A. Cohen, director of the Strategic Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and a former senior State Department counselor for the George W. Bush administration, famously helped organize a “Never Trump” letter, eventually signed by more than 120 former Republican foreign policy and national security officials and experts. Cohen explained that Trump does possess some core views—just not enough of them to give Americans a clear picture of his foreign-policy dispositions. Trump is not a traditional isolationist, although he is wary of what he perceives as lopsided alliance commitments, Cohen noted. Trump believes in a strong military, but is dismissive of past military entanglements. He is pro-Israel, supports Britain’s decision to quit the European Union, and is unusually simpatico with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. “But none of that amounts to a coherent worldview, which is one of the problems you have in judging a leader who does not read, and feels no need to fundamentally educate himself on the international system that the United States has created over more than half a century,” Cohen said. "
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/11/trump-foreign-policy-flynn-sessions-obama-isis-iraq-muslim/508196/?utm_source=atltw
Trump is neither conservative nor neoconservative. Nor is he reliably realist, idealist, or neo-isolationist. His tightly drawn circle of loyal aides and adult children reflect only the light of the “army of one” at their center. As America’s first commander-in-chief in waiting never to have served in government or the military, Trump lacks the kind of biographical paper trail that might bring into sharper focus his vague convictions. But it’s not quiet that simple.
In March, Eliot A. Cohen, director of the Strategic Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and a former senior State Department counselor for the George W. Bush administration, famously helped organize a “Never Trump” letter, eventually signed by more than 120 former Republican foreign policy and national security officials and experts. Cohen explained that Trump does possess some core views—just not enough of them to give Americans a clear picture of his foreign-policy dispositions. Trump is not a traditional isolationist, although he is wary of what he perceives as lopsided alliance commitments, Cohen noted. Trump believes in a strong military, but is dismissive of past military entanglements. He is pro-Israel, supports Britain’s decision to quit the European Union, and is unusually simpatico with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. “But none of that amounts to a coherent worldview, which is one of the problems you have in judging a leader who does not read, and feels no need to fundamentally educate himself on the international system that the United States has created over more than half a century,” Cohen said. "
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/11/trump-foreign-policy-flynn-sessions-obama-isis-iraq-muslim/508196/?utm_source=atltw
