Why President Trump isn’t winning the global power game

Former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger,  who I worked with at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, delivered a private talk about American power 40 years ago that Donald Trump should have heard.

“American leaders understand the power of  the network,” he said, “and the Soviets don’t.” 

Schlesinger pointed out that while the Soviet Union had always aimed for self-sufficiency, the United States put itself at the center of three global networks after World War II. The benefits, Schlesinger observed, far outweighed their costs. The U.S. ran trade deficits in exchange for a dollar-based global economy, invested heavily in defense to gain military and geopolitical leverage and prioritized basic research to lead the world in technological innovation.   

The 47th president has taken a wrecking ball to all three networks in Schlesinger’s construct. According to Trump,  the multilateral trading system has unfairly opened up the U.S. market to foreign predators.  The alliance system has allowed partners to freeload on defense off of American taxpayers. Investments in basic research have subsidized a “woke” science establishment dominated by elite universities. 

Trump’s one-sided view of these networks deeply discounts their value. The status of the dollar as the world’s main reserve currency puts the U.S. government at the center of global finance, lowering the cost of borrowing and creating wide leeway to finance budget and trade deficits. The U.S. security umbrella provides a wellspring of geopolitical influence in........

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