May 02, 2017
US China Envoy Likely to See Responsibilities Grow Asia-Wide
They say “personnel is policy.” In foreign relations, U.S. President Donald Trump largely has neither. Key national security posts across the government remain empty, and many of the appointments he has made seem as likely to burn out as they do to eventually shape global affairs.
Mike Flynn became the shortest-serving national security advisor in history, and White House advisor Steve Bannon, while still exerting nationalist influences, has reportedly faded. Hapless Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a much-vaunted international dealmaker from the private sector, has suffered significant missteps abroad and is hemorrhaging credibility.
As a result, this week the Senate is considering an unlikely heir for Trump’s entire foreign policy in Asia: the mild-mannered and mustachioed Iowa Governor Terry Branstad.
Read the full article at The Diplomat.
More from CNAS
-
Japan Is Emerging as a Regional Security Power Broker
While Japan’s re-emergence as a security partner in the Indo-Pacific may not be welcomed by its geopolitical antagonists, Tokyo’s multilateral approach to preserving the statu...
By Derek Grossman
-
China Presses a Weakness in America’s Tech Policy
America’s semiconductor strategy now must confront not only who controls the factories, tools, and materials required to make chips, but also who controls the language those c...
By David Feith
-
CNAS Insights | Japan isn’t rearming. It’s adapting to a new era.
Japan’s defense posture is changing and changing fast. Military spending has increased sharply over the past four years. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are acquiring long-r...
By Richard Fontaine
-
Tale as Old as Time: Security, Strategy, and U.S.-ASEAN Statecraft
Everyone wants the U.S. race car. Who's willing to wait for it? On this month's episode of Bottom Line with USABC, President & CEO Amb. Brian McFeeters sits down with Lindsey ...
By Lindsey Ford