Bolton Faces a Dangerous World He joins the chaotic Trump team amid the greatest uncertainty since Truman’s era. By Walter Russell Mead
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bolton-faces-a-dangerous-world-1523315474
Welcome to the White House, Mr. Bolton. Not since the 1940s has a national security adviser faced an array of challenges this urgent, this numerous and this perplexing.
Five distinct threats will compete for John Bolton’s attention as he settles into Henry Kissinger’s old digs: First, North Korea’s drive toward nuclear weapons that threaten the U.S. has reached a critical juncture. Second, China’s militarization of the South China Sea coincides with a crisis in U.S.-China trade relations. Third, Russia’s efforts to disrupt the Western alliance system and re-establish itself as a major power in the Middle East have progressed to the point that not even Donald Trump can ignore them. Fourth, Iran’s push to consolidate its gains in Syria and Lebanon has alarmed and provoked Israel and its once-hostile Arab neighbors. Fifth, Islamist terrorism continues to lurk in the shadows, threatening to emerge at any moment and force Western governments to respond.
As the White House considers these threats, its options are constrained. Seventeen years of indecisive war has left a polarized American public weary of global engagement. The midterm elections may yield a “blue wave” that forces the president into a defensive crouch to fend off investigations and perhaps even impeachment by a Democratic Congress. The press is deeply hostile to the Trump administration and unwilling to grant it the benefit of the doubt in foreign policy. Traditional alliances are strained: Europe and Asia worry that an “America First” administration is less valuable and reliable as a partner; Turkey, meanwhile, flirts with a revisionist confederation with Russia and Iran. CONTINUE AT SITE
Compounding the challenge is that adversaries world-wide share an interest in keeping Uncle Sam off-balance. North Korea, China, Russia, Iran and the jihadists don’t operate on a single master plan, but this common interest leads to a kind of informal coordination. Crises may erupt at inconvenient times for the U.S. precisely because they are inconvenient times for the U.S.
Then there is Mr. Bolton’s boss. Donald Trump is not interested in subordinating his improvisational leadership style to the demands of any Washington routine. He believes that the foreign-policy establishment is deeply flawed, that the career bureaucracy actively seeks to undermine his administration, and that many of the basic principles that have informed American thinking abroad for 70 years need to be discarded.
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