President Donald Trump has been busy on the world stage of late—toppling Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro in a precision strike by US forces, warning Tehran not to turn its guns on Iran’s protestors, and pushing for Russia-Ukraine peace.

But his seemingly contradictory approaches to those three challenges will raise serious questions among allies and adversaries about US intentions and future action, not just in those current hotspots but everywhere.

Such uncertainty, in turn, raises the risk of a miscalculation by China, Russia, Iran, or another adversary—a miscalculation that could heighten global tensions or even trigger a dangerous conflagration.

Questions about current US foreign policy are numerous.

“[W]e’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after US forces seized Maduro. On that basis, the case for US action was strong. Along with his alleged drug trafficking, Maduro gave China, Russia, and Iran a foothold in Latin America while nourishing economic and military ties with them.

Trump’s territorial aspirations, however, extend not only across Latin America (as he and top aides have issued warnings to Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico) but also to the land of a close ally and founding NATO member.

“We need Greenland,” Trump says, expressing a desire to offset the growing Russian and Chinese presence in the Arctic. But any forceful US effort to acquire this self-governing territory of Denmark, where the United States........

© The National Interest