Les Chantiers de la Liberté

Idées et analyses sur les dynamiques politiques et diplomatiques.

A REVISIONIST AMERICA?

A REVISIONIST AMERICA?

Invading Panama or Greenland? Annexing Canada?

“A joke! Ramblings of a man with no limits to his claims. He makes things up just to stay at the center of global attention. He’s thrilled to be at the top of the world.” These reactions, gathered from some of my American friends—experienced Republican foreign policy veterans of the pre-Trump “classic” (or Kissingerian) mold—speak volumes about the confusion stirred by the new American president’s alleged intentions toward the world. Their advice to Europeans? “Ignore him! Let him scream at someone else...”

But should we really?

Until now, the underlying trend in Trump’s statements, those of his Vice President JD Vance, and the debates within the Republican Party—even on Ukraine—seemed to suggest a return to the old isolationist Monroe Doctrine (1823). That is, “America First”—focused inwardly on its own interests and domestic issues, avoiding foreign wars like the plague. This is the opposite of the post-war internationalist Republican tradition embodied by figures like Senator Mitch McConnell, a defender of the 1945 rules-based international order. It is even further removed from the neoconservative adventurism of George W. Bush, who sought to export American democracy through tanks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A return to protectionist America would logically align with Trump’s first term, albeit in a more blunt form: tearing up treaties (climate agreements, trade deals, arms limitations), imposing tariffs indiscriminately on primary targets like China and Germany, and pressuring allies to stop “stealing” from American taxpayers by benefiting from “free protection.” Allies would now be required to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense or risk seeing the U.S. exit NATO.

Such prospects are alarming for allies but may not encompass the full scope of Trump’s ambitions. The slogan MAGA (Make America Great Again) also implies that for America to be “great,” it must reclaim its position as the world’s leading power—removing any obstacles, legal or otherwise, in its path. From this perspective, retaking control of the Panama Canal—handed over by Carter in 1977 to prevent it from falling into China’s hands—annexing Greenland and its mineral resources for similar reasons, or even incorporating Canada’s provinces into the Union (an idea briefly entertained by President Thomas Jefferson during the 1812 war with Britain), along with renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “American Gulf,” might be more than incoherent whims.

On the contrary, these could signal that Trump’s America, like Xi’s China and Putin’s Russia, is embracing revisionism. If the current order no longer serves American interests, why not change it—and, if necessary, seize the territories MAGA deems essential to regain “greatness”? Isn’t that precisely what China is doing in the Himalayas and the South China Sea, or what Russia is pursuing in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova?

At this stage, only Trump knows whether such intentions will materialize. However, the mere fact that such goals are articulated by the “leader of the free world” complicates the West’s critique of China’s ambitions in Taiwan or Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

In Moscow, this hasn’t gone unnoticed. One of the regime’s ideologues, Vladislav Surkov, even expressed satisfaction that America now seems to be imitating Putin. Empires are back… But what about Europe?

Pierre Lellouche

Op-Ed, Valeurs Actuelles, 16/01/24

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