Allies into foes. Foes into allies. What’s behind Trump’s world order assault?

LONDON − Bomb Oman. Abandon South Korea. Pull out of NATO. Seize Greenland. Maybe Canada, too.

Order U.S. special forces to snatch a troublesome Latin American dictator. Then grab that country's oil reserves.

For the best part of a decade since he first entered the disorderly world of global diplomacy, President Donald Trump has played fast and loose with U.S. foreign policy. He's repeatedly threatened traditional American allies. He's spent large amounts of time courting and flirting with unpredictable adversaries like North Korea and Russia.

The U.S. foreign policy establishment has bristled at this approach, which appears to make allies of foes, and foes of allies. Markets, which crave certainty, don't like it either. U.S. international partners have struggled to adapt to it.

But is there a defensible logic to this turn-on-your-friends, win-over your-foes strategy? Or is it simply hastening the decline of American power at a time when China is matching, if not surpassing, the U.S. in various hyper-competitive fields from technology to military advancements, from scientific research to extending the reach of its soft power?

Some political scientists and former government officials say the answer is Yes and No. Sorta. Somewhat. Alliances are shaking up, resetting, reordering. But…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/