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https://theconversation.com/a-trump-vance-white-house-could-undermine-european-security-and-end-up-pushing-russia-and-china-closer-234933>
"Donald Trump’s choice of Ohio senator J.D. Vance as his running mate in the
presidential election has reignited European fears of American abandonment.
Vance is known for his opposition to aid for Ukraine and his almost singular
focus on China as the defining security challenge for the United States.
If Trump wins in November, Vance as his vice president would further the
reorientation of US foreign and security policy away from the Euro-Atlantic
area towards the Indo-Pacific. And given Vance’s likely aspirations for the
presidency in a post-Trump era, this will have significant implications beyond
another Trump presidency.
By choosing Vance, Trump plans to lock in his brand of American populism. It’s
a choice that signals the former president’s now complete control over the
Republican party and its future direction. More than anything else, Vance’s
appointment as running mate signals the end of the post-1945 internationalist
US foreign policy consensus.
European leaders are thus rightly worried about the continuing US commitment to
European security. At the Munich security conference in February 2024, Vance
reportedly told his European interlocutors that he is “much more interested in
some of the problems in east Asia right now than I am in Europe”.
For Vance, the choice is a zero-sum game: arms for Ukraine would be better sent
to Taiwan. In April 2024, he wrote a scathing op-ed in the New York Times
arguing that rather than providing more military aid to Ukraine, Washington
should convince Kyiv to give up on the goal of restoring its full sovereignty
within its internationally recognised borders of 1991 and start negotiating
with Russia.
This is a position shared by Trump and appreciated by Russian president
Vladimir Putin. Unsurprisingly, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov,
immediately welcomed Trump’s pick of Vance as his running mate.
If America decided to end its support for Ukraine, there is little prospect
that the European allies could plug this gap. Without American military
technology and the intelligence and communications network that only the US can
provide, Ukraine would be unable to resist the relentless Russian onslaught."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
