January 27, 2017
Is Trump Even Ready to Host America’s Most Important Ally?
Hats off to the British embassy for beating out the foreign competition and landing the first post-inaugural meeting between the president of the United States and a foreign leader — British Prime Minister Theresa May. Unfortunately, sometimes you get what you ask for: Both leaders will meet under immense pressure to bring home the goods and show the critics their foreign policy chops. All eyes will search the faces of the two leaders for signs of success or failure as they emerge from their meeting to face the press.
So what does May want in the bag from her meeting with Donald Trump? Publicly, she wants to show EU leaders that the “special relationship” is alive and well, so who needs the EU? She would love to leave with the beginnings of a favorable trade deal too, but she’s negotiating with a president who does not give anything away, so she’ll be lucky to leave with vague promises of a level playing field (but don’t expect any favors at U.S. expense). And while she’s eager to start the engines on the trade front, she is constrained by the fact that Britain hasn’t even invoked Article 50 yet to trigger the country’s process for leaving the EU.
Read the full article at Foreign Policy.
More from CNAS
-
Window of Opportunity? Deterrence and Moscow’s Calculus
Podcast
In the last episode of Brussels Sprouts, we looked at the dizzying series of U.S. announcements about America’s military posture in Europe. Since then, new reporting has emerg...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend & Jeffrey Edmonds
-
The Coming Crisis of NATO Deterrence
Commentary
If Washington signals an unwillingness to engage in conventional military action to defend Europe, Putin will conclude that Russia has escalation dominance on the continent an...
By Celeste Wallander
-
U.S. Military Posture and Implications for European Security
Podcast
Over the last several weeks, U.S. allies have been trying to make sense of a dizzying series of announcements about America’s military posture and broader role in Europe. Firs...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Jim Townsend
-
What’s Behind the Pentagon Scrapping the Deployment of 4,000 U.S. Troops to Poland?
Video
They were ready to go — until the order came to stand down. More than 4,000 U.S. troops won’t deploy to Poland as planned. Former Pentagon official and Senior Fellow at the Tr...
By Jim Townsend
