Mapped: America's Collective Defense Agreements - Defense One: As Donald Trump starts his presidency, the United States has agreements to come to the defense of more than 50 other nations.
President Donald Trump begins his term as an outsider distrustful of globalization, wary of overseas commitments, and determined to deliver on a promise to restore America’s sovereignty. His first 90 days find him in a particularly unique place for a U.S. president—having spent months suggesting some of America’s defense commitments may be obsolete, while knocking allies from Asia to the Middle East and throughout NATO for not paying the U.S. enough for security.
Now two weeks in and 18 executive orders down, the Trump administration is decidedly charting a new path for the country. And it’s doing so with a new and, at times, puzzling approach toward diplomacy. (Consider the recent messaging uproar from the president’s phone calls with the leaders of Australia and Mexico.) Aside from occasional presidential tweets about World War III, one noteworthy draft executive order leaked to the New York Times in late January entitled “Moratorium on New Multilateral Treaties.” It could offer a window in the future of White House diplomacy. As written, the order would apply ”only to multilateral treaties that are not ‘directly related to national security, extradition or international trade.’” Notes the Times, “it is unclear what falls outside these restrictions.”
