Does Trump Have a Strategy? A Conversation With A. Wess Mitchell

单集文稿 ...

• 00:00

  I'm Dan Kurtz-Falen, and this is the Foreign Affairs Interview.

• 00:05

  Our hand of cards is better, I think, long-term than the Chinese, and certainly than the Russians.

• 00:11

  But near-term, it's wise and right to say we need a period

• 00:14

  of time in which we're really clearing the decks and getting things on a level for the long haul.

• 00:19

  Both of Donald Trump's presidential administrations have prompted

• 00:22

  sharp debates about the direction of American foreign policy.

• 00:26

  But how to, and whether it's even possible to, discern a strategic logic to Washington's

• 00:30

  approach have been particularly vexing questions since Trump returned to the White House.

• 00:36

  Wes Mitchell helped shape these debates as assistant secretary of state in Trump's first term,

• 00:40

  and he has been uniquely interested in shedding light on them since,

• 00:44

  including in a number of essays for Foreign Affairs.

• 00:46

  I spoke to Mitchell on Monday, May 18th.

• 00:48

  We discussed how he understands the strategy driving Trump's second-term foreign policy and where,

• 00:54

  in the wake of Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping

• 00:55

  and with wars in Iran and Ukraine far from settled, he thinks that strategy should go from here.

• 01:08

  Wes, great to have you on the podcast and to have your essay,

• 01:10

  "A Grand Strategy of Consolidation," in our May-June issue.

• 01:14

  Dan, it's great to see you.

• 01:15

  Thanks for publishing my article.

• 01:17

  Absolutely.

• 全部文稿