Trump needs order after Bolton chaos
- Sacking of hawk by US president offers opportunity to appoint national security adviser who can strike a better balance on international front
Though by all appearances in his element with chaos and crises, US President Donald Trump has appeared dovish compared with the national security adviser he has just fired, John Bolton, whose appointment 18 months ago was part of the chaos, not the solution. The sacking of an advocate of closer military ties with Taiwan removes a thorn from China’s side, although analysts do not expect it to do much to reduce tensions or his replacement to be less hawkish.
Whereas Trump wanted to pursue settlements in Afghanistan and Korea and showed no appetite for involvement in conflict with Iran and Venezuela, Bolton maintained the contempt for diplomacy and multilateralism he showed as a foreign policy adviser to George W. Bush, including as United Nations envoy.
He is said to remain convinced that bombing North Korea and Iran is the best way to deal with their nuclear threats. He argued against any flexibility in negotiations with North Korea and backed Trump’s potentially disastrous decisions to pull out of the international deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
He remained true to form right to the end, trying to convince Trump not to sign a peace deal with the Taliban, after months of talks over American withdrawal from Afghanistan. It is not clear that this had anything to do with Trump’s decision to cancel a plan to meet Taliban leaders at the presidential retreat, Camp David, and declare the talks “dead”, since he linked it to a suicide bomb attack in Kabul in which the fatalities included an American soldier.
Bolton is a hawk among hawks. In the Bush administration he was identified with the bogus case for the unilateral US invasion of Iraq 16 years ago and known for criticism of the UN bureaucracy and scant respect for multilateralism to resolving disputes.
Given the failure of a succession of foreign policy officials to bring order to chaos, it is tempting to conclude the appointment of Bolton’s successor can make no difference and therefore does not matter. But so Long as Trump pursues worthy goals in Korea and Afghanistan, no matter how unpredictably, he needs a national security adviser who can strike a better balance between dialogue, multilateralism, the interests of allies and America’s core interests.