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12-20-2017, 11:10 AM
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump erupted onto the global stage under the isolationist banner "America First" bent on tearing the multilateral world order down to its foundations.
Now, at the end of his first year in office, the United States and its shell-shocked allies face several escalating crises that could plunge the world into devastating new conflicts.
When Trump came to office in January, his predecessor Barack Obama warned that North Korea?s breakneck dash to develop long-range nuclear missiles was his most pressing threat.
As 2017 comes to an end, that threat has soared dramatically last month Kim Jong-Un test fired an ICBM and boasted that his nuclear arsenal can now hit any city on the US mainland.
Trump himself has stirred tensions with reckless language, sneeringly branding Kim "Little Rocket Man" and threatening to visit "fire and fury" on his authoritarian regime.
Alongside the bravado, US diplomats have put together a punishing international sanctions regime designed to force Pyongyang to the table so far to no avail.
South Korea and Japan also in North Korea?s firing line are facing a potentially cataclysmic conflict and China is concerned about chaos erupting on its border.
But, perhaps for the first time it is not the erratic behaviour of the North Korea dictator that worries the world, but the unpredictable signals coming from the White House.
"I think before President Trump there was always a consistency about US policy and preferences, with some exceptions," said Paul Stares, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"But President Trump?s behaviour, the erratic decision making, the tweeting and seemingly impulsive behavior has I think rattled a lot of capitals around the world," he said.
To produce the annual Global Conflicts to Watch survey, which rated US wars with North Korea or Iran as "tier one" threats, the CFR interviewed 436 government officials and outside experts.
Stares, the author of the report, told AFP he found wide concern.
"It?s just difficult to determine whether this is bluster and brinksmanship or a real determination to use force," he said, citing fears of conflict with North Korea, Iran and even Russia".
Looking ahead to 2018, I don?t think anybody is really confident that another year will go by without a serious crisis."
Trump has blown hot and cold on the North Korea sanctions strategy, at one point warning Secretary of State Rex Tillerson he was "wasting his time" in pursuing diplomatic contacts.
But the threat of US pre-emptive military action has remained a constant, even if many experts and privately serving officials admit it looks like far too risky a prospect.
With North Korean artillery poised just a few miles outside the South Korean capital and Pyongyang warning the US base on Guam could be "enveloped in fire", military action looks dicey.
But the diplomatic track is a narrow one and Kim has shown no particular enthusiasm for it himself, insisting he plans on becoming the world?s greatest military nuclear power.Trump?s brinkmanship here doesn?t seem to be helping, and now tensions with Iran threaten to start a new front in the many wars still roiling the broader Middle East.
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Now, at the end of his first year in office, the United States and its shell-shocked allies face several escalating crises that could plunge the world into devastating new conflicts.
When Trump came to office in January, his predecessor Barack Obama warned that North Korea?s breakneck dash to develop long-range nuclear missiles was his most pressing threat.
As 2017 comes to an end, that threat has soared dramatically last month Kim Jong-Un test fired an ICBM and boasted that his nuclear arsenal can now hit any city on the US mainland.
Trump himself has stirred tensions with reckless language, sneeringly branding Kim "Little Rocket Man" and threatening to visit "fire and fury" on his authoritarian regime.
Alongside the bravado, US diplomats have put together a punishing international sanctions regime designed to force Pyongyang to the table so far to no avail.
South Korea and Japan also in North Korea?s firing line are facing a potentially cataclysmic conflict and China is concerned about chaos erupting on its border.
But, perhaps for the first time it is not the erratic behaviour of the North Korea dictator that worries the world, but the unpredictable signals coming from the White House.
"I think before President Trump there was always a consistency about US policy and preferences, with some exceptions," said Paul Stares, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"But President Trump?s behaviour, the erratic decision making, the tweeting and seemingly impulsive behavior has I think rattled a lot of capitals around the world," he said.
To produce the annual Global Conflicts to Watch survey, which rated US wars with North Korea or Iran as "tier one" threats, the CFR interviewed 436 government officials and outside experts.
Stares, the author of the report, told AFP he found wide concern.
"It?s just difficult to determine whether this is bluster and brinksmanship or a real determination to use force," he said, citing fears of conflict with North Korea, Iran and even Russia".
Looking ahead to 2018, I don?t think anybody is really confident that another year will go by without a serious crisis."
Trump has blown hot and cold on the North Korea sanctions strategy, at one point warning Secretary of State Rex Tillerson he was "wasting his time" in pursuing diplomatic contacts.
But the threat of US pre-emptive military action has remained a constant, even if many experts and privately serving officials admit it looks like far too risky a prospect.
With North Korean artillery poised just a few miles outside the South Korean capital and Pyongyang warning the US base on Guam could be "enveloped in fire", military action looks dicey.
But the diplomatic track is a narrow one and Kim has shown no particular enthusiasm for it himself, insisting he plans on becoming the world?s greatest military nuclear power.Trump?s brinkmanship here doesn?t seem to be helping, and now tensions with Iran threaten to start a new front in the many wars still roiling the broader Middle East.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/shteO0ftrNw
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/shteO0ftrNw/258211-trump-s-year-of-shattered-norms-leaves-world-on-edge)