Michael Singh is the Managing Director and Lane-Swig Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
President Barack Obama and Donald Trump present a study in contrasts: the former a cerebral progressive, the latter a brash populist. Yet for all their differences, the similarities in the two men's foreign policy outlooks are striking.
Two common themes emerge from Obama's series of interviews with Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg and Trump's recent discussions with the Washington Post and New York Times. First, both are instinctively suspicious of foreign entanglements, preferring to leave problems overseas to those states that are most directly concerned to sort out. Obama sees the United States as unable to counter Ukraine's military domination by Russia -- short at least of going to war -- and ultimately powerless to counter Russian hegemony in Ukraine, reasoning that Moscow's interest is stronger and it will thus enjoy "escalatory dominance." Trump is even more dismissive of the United States' role in Europe, arguing that NATO is an unnecessary expense with which Washington should dispense...
