The blogosphere is awash with claims of how the Trump administration is undermining American power in the world. A recent post by Hal Brands in War on the Rocks sums them up well. Trump has moved away from a cooperative approach to dealing with other nations, ditched long-standing commitments to the free world in favor of a transactional approach, removed purpose from American power, stepped back from a leadership role, ignored steadiness and reliability, exhibited remarkable incompetence, snubbed soft power, and pledged to be unexceptional. Brands claims that all of these have eroded the particular nature of American power that served to boost its effect by gloving it in velvet. Ungloved, Brands claims, the US will be scarier and cause other nations to balance against it. Brands may be right, but other nations are not the only consequential actors in global politics.
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