Statement Plus Names

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 3
At a glance
Powered by AI
The document criticizes Trump's foreign policy record and argues it has emboldened rivals, alienated allies, and mishandled various crises.

The document argues that Trump's foreign policy record has failed on many fronts including the trade war with China hurting farmers, Russia continuing to meddle in elections, North Korea continuing nuclear programs, and Iran attacking the US and having a more robust nuclear program.

The document gives examples such as the US relationship with NATO allies weakening, closing the embassy in Iraq illustrating the weakening of the State Department, and racist policies weakening the US's ability to promote democratic rights internationally.

We the undersigned scholars of international relations and foreign policy view the Trump foreign

policy record largely as a failure. This administration has emboldened US rivals and alienated
many vital US allies. Crises at every level have been mishandled, from the global Covid19
pandemic and climate change to slowing or containing national nuclear programs in Iran and
North Korea. The United States, once a world leader, is seen as weak and disengaged by many
leaders and in many populations across the world. The result is greater instability, insecurity,
and human suffering. We need new leadership.

1) The US trade war with China increased tariffs, additional taxes paid by US
consumers for imported Chinese goods. Meanwhile, the US trade agreement with China
has fallen far short in raising US exports to China. China has not met the targets agreed
to with the Trump administration. The trade war badly hurt US farmers, with the Trump
government then spending tens of billions of dollars to subsidize them. When the United
States badly needed PPE to fight Covid19, Trump’s trade restrictions hindered its
acquisition.
2) Authoritarian Russia continues to meddle in and undermine the legitimacy of US
democratic elections while President Donald J. Trump denies it is a problem. The Trump
administration seems to feel closer to Putin’s Russia than our NATO allies.
3) North Korea has continued its nuclear weapons program despite the exchange of
fawning letters between Trump and Kim Jong-Un, the North Korean leader.
4) In response to Trump’s policy, Iran now attacks the United States in Iraq with
greater frequency and has a more robust nuclear program. In addition, the United States
is talking about closing its embassy in Baghdad as a result. This embassy closure – in
Iraq of all places – would be an apt illustration of the weakening of the Department of
State under this president.
5) US policy toward Venezuela has overpromised and underdelivered, leaving
Venezuelans even more desperate, the opposition divided, the Maduro government
emboldened, and US credibility weakened.
6) The US Director of National Intelligence has dangerously limited bipartisan
intelligence sharing. This latest example of frequent partisan manipulation of intelligence
leaves fewer US officials to evaluate potential crisis and threats, damages relations
between the Executive Branch agencies and Congress, and could create dangerous
gaps for US rivals to exploit.
7) Rather than focusing the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on meeting
external threats to US national security and on rising domestic white supremacist
terrorism, the Trump administration has used DHS as a hyper-partisan weapon against
immigrants and US antiracism protestors. This diversion of resources could well leave
the United States ill-prepared should a foreign adversary seek to do harm to the United
States and its citizens.
8) As deadly wildfires and hurricanes tragically remind the United States of the climate
crisis and the increasing number and intensity of extreme weather events, the Trump
administration pulled out of the major international climate agreement (the Paris
Accords), often questions the scientific consensus that the crisis is human-induced, and
offers no substantive alternative remedy.
9) In the midst of a global pandemic, the United States announced it was pulling out of
the World Health Organization and failed to provide almost any global leadership to meet
Covid19. The US domestic failure to get Covid19 under control is a model of what not to
do but sadly one consistent with several other countries with authoritarian-style leaders.
10) The administration has separated thousands of children from their parents, detaining
or deporting them and often failing to reunite them with their parent(s). They have been
held in inhumane conditions lacking adequate medical care; this abuse and trauma is
detrimental to child development. More generally, the Trump administration has
physically prevented hundreds of thousands of people from making asylum claims on
the southern US border in violation of international law. The administration deported
individuals with positive Covid19 diagnoses, further spreading the disease. Meanwhile,
the administration has nearly eliminated the US refugee resettlement program, a symbol
of US humanitarianism and a welcome pathway for oppressed people to start a new life
and enrich US society.
11) Racist and discriminatory policies at home, anti-democratic crackdowns on US
protestors, and direct insults of Latin American and African countries embolden racists in
other countries and further weaken the US ability to persuade other countries to respect
democratic rights, such as China’s brutal detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
12) In two key battles, the Trump administration has done no better than its
predecessors. The forces of the Islamic State are rebuilding. Nineteen years later,
despite diplomatic talks, the War in Afghanistan continues.
13) While the administration has some policies that did not fail, their impact was greatly
exaggerated. The new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico was more an updating
of the North American Free Trade Agreement than a whole new policy. The Bahrain-
Israel-United Arab Emirates agreements were a modest diplomatic achievement but
completely failed to address Trump’s promise to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
may deepen a regional arms race.

President Donald J. Trump’s foreign policy has already caused major harm. The United States
can rebuild in positive ways, but a second Trump term would do even deeper damage to US
institutions, diplomacy, leadership, and international norms. Countries such as China would
continue to fill the vacuum. Instead, to increase US security and reduce human suffering, we
need new leadership now.

---

Institutions are mentioned below for the purpose of identification only.


No institution listed below has endorsed this statement.

Karen J. Alter Northwestern University


Ivan Michael Arreguín-Toft Brown University
Robert J. Art Brandeis University (Emeritus)
Victor Asal University at Albany, SUNY
Severine Autesserre Barnard College, Columbia University
Deborah Avant University of Denver
Alexander D. Barder Florida International University
Naazneen H. Barma University of Denver
Michael Barnett George Washington University
Marie E. Berry University of Denver
Mia Bloom Georgia State University
Joshua Busby University of Texas-Austin
Charli Carpenter University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Erica Chenoweth Harvard University
Anjali Dayal Fordham University
V. Page Fortna Columbia University
M. Taylor Fravel Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Charles Glaser George Washington University
James Goldgeier American University
Elizabeth Hanson University of Connecticut
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd Northwestern University
Ian Hurd Northwestern University
Patrick Thaddeus Jackson School of International Service, American University
Bruce W. Jentleson Duke University
Robert Jervis Columbia University
Sabrina Karim Cornell University
Sean Kay Ohio Wesleyan University
Jonathan Kirshner Boston College
Gregory D. Koblentz Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
Raymond Kuo Independent political scientist
Brett Ashley Leeds Rice University
Sarah K. Lischer Wake Forest University
Jeremy Menchik Boston University
Barak Mendelsohn Haverford College
Nicholas Miller Dartmouth College
Jennifer Mitzen
Sara Bjerg Moller Seton Hall University
T. Clifton Morgan Rice University
Vipin Narang Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jeremy Pressman University of Connecticut
Brian Rathbun University of Southern California
Elizabeth N. Saunders Georgetown University
Paul Staniland University of Chicago
Jelena Subotic Georgia State University
Caitlin Talmadge Georgetown University
Zak Taylor Georgia Institute of Technology
Monica Duffy Toft Fletcher School, Tufts University
Dov Waxman University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
Sharon K. Weiner American University

Institutions are mentioned above for the purpose of identification only.


No institution listed above has endorsed this statement.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy