Thomas L. Friedman
I don’t know why people say that President-elect Donald Trump is going to face difficult challenges in foreign policy.
All he needs to do is get Vladimir Putin to compromise on Russia’s western border. Get Volodymyr Zelensky to compromise on Ukraine’s eastern border. Get Benjamin Netanyahu to define Israel’s western and southern borders. Get Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to define his country’s western border — that is, stop trying to control Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Get China to define its eastern border as short of Taiwan. And get the Houthis in Yemen to define their coastal border as limited to just a few miles off shore — without the right to stop all shipping into the Red Sea.
To put it another way: If you think the only border that will preoccupy Trump when he takes office on Jan. 20 is America’s southern border, you’re not paying attention.
When Trump left office in 2021, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah, one could argue that we were still in the “post-Cold War” era, dominated by increasing economic integration and Great Power peace. Russia had taken a bite out of Ukraine, but never attempted to devour the whole thing. Iran and Israel were hostile, but never directly attacked each other.
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