Under Trump, America’s New Friends: Russia, North Korea and Belarus

THE NEW YORK TIMES: When it comes to the war in Ukraine, President Trump finds common cause with the world’s outlier states and stands against traditional U.S. allies like Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy.

If the old saying is true, that you are known by who your friends are, then President Trump may be telling the world something about who he plans to be in this second term.

In a move that redrew the international order, Mr. Trump this week had the United States vote against a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the third anniversary of the war.

Among the countries that Mr. Trump joined in siding with Russia? North Korea, Belarus and Sudan.

Those he stood against? Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and most of the rest of the world.

It would be hard to think of a starker demonstration of how radically Mr. Trump is recalibrating America’s place in the world after barely a month back in office. He is positioning the United States in the camp of the globe’s chief rogue states in opposition to the countries that have been America’s best friends since World War II or before.

The fracturing of the U.S. bond with its traditional allies carries profound implications for the future of American foreign policy. Even as leaders from Poland, France and Britain are heading to Washington this week to try to lure Mr. Trump back into the fold, they and their compatriots face the reality that he does not share their values or see their priorities being in concert with American interests.
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“Trump is transparently and unabashedly doing Russia’s bidding in this and many other ways, aligning the U.S. with our adversaries and against our treaty allies,” said Susan E. Rice, who served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations and later his national security adviser. “We all have to ask ourselves why?” » | Peter Baker | Reporting from the White House | Tuesday, February 25, 2025

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The Guardian View on Trump’s Foreign Policy: An Alarming New Order Takes Shape

THE GUARDIAN — EDITORIAL: The US’s former allies must not normalise or legitimise the president’s lawless concept of international deal-making

Nothing about Donald Trump’s notion that Gaza should come under US control makes sense according to established laws and norms of international relations. But the current White House regime despises the old way of doing things and intends to reshape the world so drastically that restoration of a pre-Trumpian order will be impossible.

The absurd incoherence of Mr Trump’s proposal that the US “take over” Gaza doesn’t make it any less sinister. The requirement that 2.2 million Palestinians be forcibly resettled in neighbouring Arab states amounts to unambiguous endorsement of a criminal atrocity – ethnic cleansing.

The idea that the land, having been requisitioned by the US government, will then be transformed into a Mediterranean “riviera” is disturbing and grotesque in its detachment from reality. Mr Trump is treating a war zone at the centre of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts as if it were a patch of derelict Manhattan real estate. He is toying with the lives of millions of people in the idiom of a corrupt property developer and with the methods and ethics of a mafia boss. » | Editorial | Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Palestinians have a clear message for Donald Trump over Gaza: ‘We are here, we won’t leave’: People have fought tooth and nail against killings, incarceration and displacement from their homeland. They will not give up »

What’s Next in US-Saudi Relations

On March 22, Foreign Policy at Brookings hosted the minister of foreign affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Adel Al-Jubeir, for an Alan and Jane Batkin International Leaders Forum. In his remarks, the foreign minister provided perspectives on Saudi Arabia’s role as a regional leader for stability and reconstruction.

France: President Macron to Outline His Foreign Policy in Key Speech to Ambassadors

Complete Third Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy 2012: Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney
The third presidential debate on foreign policy between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in the run up to the general election in November.

Sarah Palin On Foreign Policy

Bob Ainsworth criticises Barack Obama over Afghanistan
THE TELEGRAPH: Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, has blamed Barack Obama and the United States for the decline in British public support for the war in Afghanistan.

He took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban.

A “period of hiatus” in Washington - and a lack of clear direction - had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said.

Senior British Government sources have become increasingly frustrated with Mr Obama’s “dithering” on Afghanistan.

However, Mr Ainsworth is the first minister to express in public what amounts to personal criticism of the President’s leadership. >>> James Kirkup, Thomas Harding and Toby Harnden | Wednesday, November 25, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Iraq war files: British colonel's scathing attack on 'arrogant, bureaucratic' Americans >>> | Monday, November 23, 2009

DIE PRESSE: Auf Bush-Kurs: Obama lehnt Landminen-Verbot ab: US-Präsident Obama behält die Politik seines Vorgängers Bush bei: Die USA schließen sich als einziges Nato-Land nicht der Konvention zum Verbot von Landminen an. >>> Ag. | Mittwoch, 25. November 2009

Turkey's Turn From the West
WASHINGTON POST: Turkey is a special Muslim country. Of the more than 50 majority-Muslim nations, it is the only one that is a NATO ally, is in accession talks with the European Union, is a liberal democracy and has normal relations with Israel. Under its current government by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), however, Turkey is losing these special qualities. Liberal political trends are disappearing, E.U. accession talks have stalled, ties with anti-Western states such as Iran are improving and relations with Israel are deteriorating. On Thursday, for example, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a panel at Davos, Switzerland, after chiding Israeli President Shimon Peres for "killing people." If Turkey fails in these areas or wavers in its commitment to transatlantic structures such as NATO, it cannot expect to be President Obama's favorite Muslim country.

Consider the domestic situation in Turkey and its effect on relations with the European Union. Although Turkey started accession talks, that train has come to a halt. French objections to Turkish membership slowed the process, but the impact of the AKP's slide from liberal values cannot be ignored. After six years of AKP rule, the people of Turkey are less free and less equal, as various news and other reports on media freedom and gender equality show. In April 2007, for instance, the AKP passed an Internet law that has led to a ban on YouTube, making Turkey the only European country to shut down access to the popular site. On the U.N. Development Program's gender-empowerment index, Turkey has slipped to 90th from 63rd in 2002, the year the AKP came to power, putting it behind even Saudi Arabia. It is difficult to take seriously the AKP's claim to be a liberal party when Saudi women are considered more politically, economically and socially empowered than Turkish women.

Then there is foreign policy. Take Turkey's status as a NATO ally of the United States: Ankara's rapprochement with Tehran has gone so far since 2002 that it is doubtful whether Turkey would side with the United States in dealing with the issue of a nuclear Iran. In December, Erdogan told a Washington crowd that "countries that oppose Iran's nuclear weapons should themselves not have nuclear weapons." >>> By Soner Cagaptay | Monday, February 2, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)

Eurozone to Speak with One Voice?
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNAIONAL: The EU's monetary affairs commissioner has called for far-reaching new powers for the European Commission. He would like Brussels to have greater control over economic policy in euro zone countries -- and even wants its members to speak with one voice on the international stage.

Opponents of the European Union claim that Brussels already has too much influence over the internal affairs of the EU's 27 member states. They are unlikely to be thrilled by the news that a leading EU official is calling for far-reaching new powers for the EU's executive branch when it comes to member states' economic affairs -- and even foreign policy.

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia (more...) wants the European Commission to have more clout in all areas of economic policy. In the future, the Commission should be able to supervise and coordinate reform efforts in the countries of the euro zone, in order to promote more competition in Europe's product and services markets, including the market for financial services. The proposals are contained in a report marking the 10-year anniversary of the euro which Almunia will present on Wednesday. EU Commissioner Wants Far-Reaching New Powers for Brussels >>> | May 5, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

*Carne Ross’ Blog on the Possible Corruption Between BAE and the Saudi Government
THE GUARDIAN: The story of possible corruption between BAE and the Saudi government, and how the British government ignored it, is shocking. But we should not regard this episode as an aberration. Instead, it should force us to question the way foreign policy is thought about and practised in government today.

For decades British policy towards Saudi Arabia has been dominated by al-Yamamah, the massive BAE deal to provide aircraft and supplies. When I worked on the Middle East at the Foreign Office in the mid-90s, it was widely assumed that, along with uninterrupted oil supplies, this was what Britain's Saudi policy was "about". Any other concern, whether of human rights or the export of radical Wahhabi Islam, was by and large secondary.

This assumption was never questioned by officials or ministers. It was just the way things were. To think otherwise, that British policy - "our" policy as we called it (though it was never democratically debated, of course) - should be about human rights or Saudi Arabia's contribution to global security, would have been dismissed as naive or fanciful. We were just being realistic. To the blog - We could pay a grave price for our addiction to arms deals: Working at the Foreign Office I saw how exports took precedence over human rights. With the Saudis, this could backfire

* Carne Ross, a former diplomat, runs Independent Diplomat, a non-profit advisory group. He is the author of Independent Diplomat: Dispatches From an Unaccountable Elite Independentdiplomat.org

Mark Alexander