When it comes to tackling global conflicts, President Trump is a man in a hurry.
Even before his inauguration, the president claimed the merit of what he called a “ceased the epic fire” in Gaza. He ran to convince Ukraine and Russia to quickly embrace a break in the fighting. And with Iran, Trump wants an agreement within two months to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
It is the version of foreign policy of the “Flood The Zone” approach of the President to Washington, where he and his lieutenants used Blitzkrieg similar tactics to dismantle the bureaucracy, consolidate executive power and attack his political enemies. Also on the world phase, Trump embraced a haste foreign policy approach designed to quickly resolve the disputes he inherited.
But his diplomatic impatience is now headed by the complexity of war and peace, raising questions about the duration of what he has achieved so far. The ceased the fire between Gaza and Israel has collapsed. Trump’s proposal for a ceased the immediate fire of 30 days was rejected by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. And an Iranian nuclear deal – not unlike the one from which he retired during his first term in office – seems to remain much beyond the horizon despite his push for a quick agreement.
“Trump’s Mo is always in a hurry, in search of the transaction, for the temporary, for the now,” said Aaron David Miller, former negotiator of the Middle East and member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“American foreign policy – Ukraine, Gaza, Iran – are not measured in terms of administrations. It is generational time,” said Miller. He added that hurrying a solution has been risky, “because he is in a hurry to obtain results, it is a kind of erroneously diagnosing the problem”.
The president’s allies reject this evaluation. They argue that his approach is designed to create impetus to cancel what calls the “international order based on the rules” which dominated the global foreign policy for decades. In addition to Iran, Israel and Ukraine, they note that Trump shocked the world with threats to use the strength to acquire control of both Greenland and the Panama channel.
“Geopolitically, it’s all gas, no brakes,” said Stephen K. Bannon, a former Trump administration strategist in an interview. He said the president is sending the assistants – what he calls “shock troops” – to quickly face global conflicts more or less the same way in which he has deployed Elon Musk and his department of government efficiency within the federal government.
“What is doing Geo-Stragically and Geo-Economically, is far away, far exceeds what he is doing at national level,” said Bannon. “If you look beyond the scoreboard, the method to its madness is profound, it is significant and will have the greatest implications for national security.”
The push of the president for the momentum was at the center of his approach to the two most burning global conflicts in recent times: the annual combat between Hamas and Israel in Gaza; And the three -year war started when Russia invaded Ukraine.
In both, Mr. Trump repeatedly raised his former president Joseph R. Biden Jr. for not having prevented – and therefore moved quite quickly to resolve – conflicts. In his speech to a joint session of the congress at the beginning of this month, the president boasted that “many things are happening in the Middle East”. Of the conflict in Ukraine, he said his impatience: “It is time to stop this madness. It is time to stop killing. It is time to end this senseless war”.
Clifford D. May, the founder of the Foundation for the defense of democracies, said that Trump seems eager to pass beyond global crises in order to focus his attention elsewhere.
“He would prefer his war to wake up. He would prefer to make immigration,” said May. “He would like this from his dish.”
But he said that the push of Mr. Trump for a resolution in Ukraine “hit a remarkable giving” in the form of Mr. Putin. Tuesday in a phone call, the Russian leader braked the desire of Mr. Trump of a rapid agreement of ceased the fire between Russia and Ukraine, agreeing only to stop attacks on energy infrastructures.
May said that Mr. Putin is playing on the desire of Mr. Trump of a rapid resolution intentionally slowing down the efforts of the American president to interrupt the status quo that exists for the whole war.
“The interruption factor can be useful in some cases,” said May. But when it does not work, as with someone like Putin, who is an expert, who is patient, who sees what you are doing, who tries to play you “, he added,” then you may have to take a step back and say: ok, what is the plan B here? “
In Israel, Mr. Trump used his social media platform to push for a quick respite before taking in charge. Until the resumption of Israeli attacks in Gaza this week, the president greeted his efforts in peace, even putting to himself to journalists who deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
“They will never give me,” he added.
Bannon rejected the idea that the collapse of the ceased fire to Gaza is proof that the desire of the president of a quick solution in the region led to a stop in the fights that were not sustainable or durable. He said that the support of Mr. Trump for Israel – and his unequivocal condemnation of Hamas in Gaza – gave Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, more freedom to conduct the war.
“In reality he showed the world that” Hey, you can’t take care of these people, they are not reliable, “said Bannon of Hamas.” And then Israel enters and now you don’t see a storm of fire as you saw at the beginning. “
Other long -standing observers of American foreign policy have said that while there is merit to move rapidly when it comes to global diplomacy, which can often stimulate actions that are not based on solid information.
Lawrence Freedman, emeritus professor of war studies at the King’s College in London, said that the problem with the president’s desire for urgently is that it accumulates the detailed and often laborious work usually requested for a long -term solution to wars.
“Think if knocking enough, then people will fall and that you can go to the things you really want to do,” said Freedman. “But because it is not based on a serious evaluation of the situation – of the problems at hand – it doesn’t really work.”
Miller said that Trump is less interested in the long -term solution than the short -term political benefit he obtains from the announcement of a diplomatic result.
“You have an extraordinarily impatient person,” he said, “where speed, frankly, counts more than politics”.