Thanks largely to the foresight of Cordell Hull, former President Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, trade policy has been a vital component of broader American foreign ‘paw’licy since World War II. The operating assumption has been that commercial diplomacy can connect countries economically and thereby help facilitate harmonious relations — a classic tool for “soft power.”

Today, however, the United States is challenging that assumption as the Trump administration has spent 2018 levying dubious “national security” tariffs on steel and aluminum products from our closest allies like Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. But what if we told readers that not only are the tariffs fostering distrust among our allies, but they’re also making the world less safe for us mutts?