(The Guardian) -- Trying to piece Donald Trump’s foreign policy together, one cannot be blamed for missing the grand strategy in it all. Maybe Trump is a realist; or maybe he wants to dismantle the US-led international order. Perhaps he is purely a dealmaker.
Whatever the approach, one theme is consistent in Trump’s actions and words: his desire to make US foreign policy appear as unpredictable as possible. As Trump so succinctly summarized it himself during a foreign policy speech in April 2016: “We have to be unpredictable.”
Call it a “doctrine of unpredictability”, if you like.
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Trump believes that the US should pursue the foreign policy of a gambler, shedding the more “predictable” aspects of foreign policy that have, until now, helped keep the world somewhat stable. As gambler-in-chief, Trump’s perceived unpredictability will supposedly give him leverage to negotiate anything with anyone at anytime.
