The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2020 35 given the U.S. role as principal guardian and pillar of the post– World War II international order, is the administration’s apparent break from established foreign policy orthodoxy a fatal blow, a needed jolt or something else entirely? Is the element of apparent unpredictability in our approach a welcome wild card that opens new options for us, or a potentially perilous one that could accidentally unleash a serious global cri- sis? Does it cause our partners and allies to question our commit- ment and reliability, or force them to reassess their own wavering commitment and uncertain reliability, and to correct course in that way? In other words, does it keep our strategic rivals on their toes, compel them to reappraise what we might do in a pinch rather than assume that we will be predictably prudent and cool-headed, and therefore easy to anticipate and outmaneuver? Do the seem- ingly unusual events of the day spell the last gasp of our preemi- nence, a parenthetical pause, or some more fundamental and potentially welcome change of direction? While the nature and mood of the current moment feel some- how different, the persistent critical questioning and unhinged, sometimes blistering criticism of the United States itself are hardly new. Far from it, in many ways they are more of the same. Whatever our own answers to these and other questions are— and I know that many of us have strongly felt convictions in this respect—my argument here is that we ourselves are ill-equipped It is no surprise that one of the most penetrating and lastingly relevant appreciations of democratic practices in the United States was penned by a young French nobleman, Alexis de Tocqueville.