If you had the feeling that everything seemed to be going well for a while as the war dragged on in Ukraine, the sweltering heat was spreading and prolonging And the decline in democracy here and there, some see worse on the horizon.
The Aspen Security Forum wrapped up yesterday in Colorado. It is a major annual gathering of leaders, entrepreneurs and thinkers – young and old – who speak out widely about threats to world peace.
On site, my colleagues from the online media POLITICO noted that even though the speakers do talk the talk, it has proven impossible to get them to talk about Donald Trump and what his return to the White House could mean for the rest of the planet. It’s already enough to cause nightmares.
What we admit in the private sector
Some are quietly expressing concerns about a Trump comeback, Politico says, and a former member of his administration admitted anonymously that “anarchy is a very difficult way to govern.”
The first, of course, is what will happen to American support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. The former president claims he can end it within twenty-four hours. An insane assertion in such a brutal and complex conflict, but John Bolton, his former national security adviser, responded with the most sting last May on the CNN radio airwaves.
“No sane person thinks that the Ukrainians and the Russians can be brought to an agreement on how to resolve the conflict within twenty-four hours. Trump feels that foreign leaders, especially his opponents, value him very much, and that he has good relations with Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un. In fact, the opposite is true. I was with him in those rooms when he met those leaders.
Expensive success
In foreign policy, Donald Trump boasts that he has not started new wars. Indeed, success after the Afghan and Iraqi quagmire in which George W. Bush and Barack Obama sank.
With the same momentum, however, ensure that the underlying conflicts do not find a solution. The famous Abraham Accords, the normalization of relations between Israel and four Arab countries, concluded with complete indifference to the fate of the Palestinians, from whom it withdrew $200 million in humanitarian aid.
Canceling the deal on Iran’s nuclear program proved a fiasco, as Tehran resumed uranium enrichment rather than make any concessions.
His “love letters” and meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un only served to perpetuate Pyongyang’s ballistic missile program, as trade pressures on China began to move away from the two largest economic powers.
It is not inconceivable that Trump will win the next presidential election and recreate the turmoil of his first four years in the White House. In the meantime, as participants at the Aspen forum acknowledged, let us appreciate the normalcy and predictability that Joe Biden has brought back to the Oval Office for two and a half years.
