COLUMNS

Trump, Kissinger and the Search for a New World Order

undefined and VP of Global Analysis
Reva Goujon
VP of Global Analysis, Stratfor

Jun 22, 2018 | 07:00 GMT

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office in October 2017 in Washington.

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office in October 2017 in Washington. Kissinger might have a role to play in helping Trump create a new world order.

(WIN McNAMEE/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The United States' return to aloofness, China's rise, Europe's fragmentation and the growing strategic alignment between Moscow and Beijing are all destabilizing the international system.
  • Basing the world order on Westphalian principles is necessary to reinject enough flexibility and pragmatism into the global system amid a new, competitive era of great power politics, according to veteran diplomat Henry Kissinger.
  • The potential for a U.S.-China understanding on the fate of the Korean Peninsula will serve as a critical testing ground for this emerging world order.

Donald Trump is nothing if not unpredictable as president. But when it comes to foreign policy, that just might be his greatest foreign policy asset. After all, America's ability to swing between aloofness and overreaction are embedded in its DNA thanks to its inherently strong geopolitical foundation. A mercurial spirit in the White House might make some big waves, but can also -- at least in some circumstances -- be harnessed into an opportunity. A grand strategist like Dr. Henry Kissinger, who has been known to advise Trump on occasion, likely detects such an opportunity in a Trump presidency. Now, Kissinger is trying to help Trump craft a new order in a rapidly changing environment – starting with a solution to one of the United States' biggest headaches of the day, North Korea....

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