One influential political scientist says that the chapter of history in which America exerts substantial control of the world will come to an end during President-elect Trump’s administration.
Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, told Nikkei Asian Review that 2016 represents the end of “Pax Americana,” because of Trump’s heavy influence on America-first foreign policy.
“If we were writing a book and there was a chapter on Pax Americana, it’d be over in 2016,” he said.
Bremmer also predicted that alliances under Trump’s presidency will be built around who gives him the better deal, not around common values.
“There are a couple big problems, though. One is that other countries … are already questioning American credibility, and his approach is going to make them hedge, much more dramatically,” he said.
While the American government still has a series of checks and balances on a president’s power, Bremmer said in the realm of foreign policy, the president has much more leeway to do as he wishes. But in addition to making actual policy changes, it’s important how a president behaves during a crisis.
“If there is a significant crisis under Trump, then it’s a game-changer because Trump wants to be a more authoritarian leader — like Erdogan in Turkey,” Bremmer said. “Of course, there are limitations because the institutions don’t line up with that. But suddenly Erdogan had an attempted coup and then he was able to go after everybody. You could imagine this happening on a larger scale under Trump.”
