Now that the world has slowly got
accustomed by the fact that Donald J. Trump is the president-elect of the
United States of America, it seems reasonable to think that the international has
shifted , or will so, beginning on the 21st of January 2017, when he
will make his oath as the 45th president. Until then the outgoing lame
duck Barack Obama will be making his last moves as a Democratic leader in the
White House. One of them being his last trip to Europe, which started in
Greece, where he met Prime Minster Alexis Tsipras, surrounded by a massive
rally protesting against his visit. His trip which started in Hellenic soil,
will lead him further to Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
For his farewell tour, Obama comes with a
lot of assuring messages for his European counterparts, within a very delicate
timeframe. The electoral promises held by the republican president-elect have
raised some eyebrows in several capitals, and also at the NATO, led by
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who seems particularly concerned about the future
of the organization he represents. If the new policies of Washington, under
this new administration was to severe the expenditures into the organization,
as being its main contributor, it could call seriously into question its permanence
as such, and its viability militarily speaking. Thus the worries which Barack
has to try to appease somehow in this last tour.
The Trade Agreements between the US and the
European Union also went sour lately, again putting the feasibility into doubt,
if ever the biggest consumer market, made up by both of them, were to be
merged. This seems more remote than ever, considering the new ideas of
protectionism rising in the Northern American nation.
Hence the new uncertainty remains whole, as
of the state of affairs worldwide and in the US in late January of next year.
Will there be the massive expelling of illegal aliens back to Mexico and
Central America? Will the border be effectively be sealed off by a gigantic
Wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico? Who will be paying for its
expenses? And furthermore, who will be in charge of what on the Hill? Obama meanwhile takes advantage of the time
remaining as a head of state, and will try to reach whatever intermediary result
he can achieve, whether it may be in Syria, Yemen or elsewhere, before the new
team will take over the controls.
It seems as if the nominee for the post of Secretary of State has been between the former US Ambassador John R. Bolton, having served shortly before the United Nations under the administration of Georg W. Bush, or Rudolph Giuliani, former mayor of New York. Both of the have had hard stances regarding international affairs, but certainly the one more embedded into this is Bolton. He not only withdrew the signature of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on behalf of the US, but he also claimed several times his personal considerations about the UN, which he despises as a whole.
He dismisses the international law as such, seeing before anything else, the sole interests of the United States. As much as this can be of help to that purpose the UN is welcome to coexist in the world affairs. But beyond that it is as insignificant as can be. Combining the viewpoints of Trump himself, added to the likely Secretary of State Bolton, things might get sour in years to come.
Whomever shall step into these shoes, the new era has started worldwide. The former establishment, warrantied by the continuity of Clinton dynasty, has since decades set the rules to follow. It may be risky to try speculating about the contours of this new age to come. What is sure is that nothing is the way it used to be anymore, or will be.
This is a time of shifts and turns, which could take by surprise everyone. While waiting for the dust to settle, when everything will be clear to see, changes are being made as we speak within the team in the making of president-elect Donald J. Trump. Wait and see.
