Haass: U.S. Has Gone From Being A Predictable Great Power To Now Being An Unpredictable Power
Former president of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass on Thursday’s edition of “Morning Joe” said President Donald Trump is a “unilateralist on virtually every issue.”
JONATHAN LEMIRE, ‘MORNING JOE’ GUEST HOST: So Richard, off of what you just said with regard to Article 5, with regard to Putin wanting to take over Lithuania at some point, and us doing nothing, there’s a huge meeting in Ottawa today, many European leaders there. Are we on the verge or are we there? RICHARD HAASS, FORMER COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS PRESIDENT: Are we now a nation alone? Well essentially we’re entering into the, what you might, the post-American era in terms of European security, where our role will go from dominant to something much more junior, and the Europeans are increasingly contemplating a future where they might have to be self-sufficient. There’s good aspects of that, there’s also really uneasy aspects of that, particularly over the next couple of years. And more broadly, Mike, yeah, I mean think about it, the President’s announcement on tariffs, this sort of thing, that the United States, you know, whether you want to call it America first, but I actually think, you know, this turns out this President’s not isolationist, but we aren’t unilateralist on virtually every issue, you know, whether it’s getting out of the Paris climate thing, or getting out of the World Health Organization, the unilateral tariffs, moving back from our commitments in Europe, he won’t make certain commitments about Taiwan. What we have essentially done is gone from being a predictable great power, there with our allies deterring our foes, to now being an unpredictable power, much more essentially listening to ourselves and keeping the rest of the world uncertain. And I think what you’re beginning to see is American allies adjust to a world in which the United States, after 80 years, is now playing a fundamentally different role.
