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Bumpy ride ahead

Jan 14,2017 - Last updated at Jan 14,2017

In a few days, Donald Trump will assume his duties as the 45th US president and a new era will dawn on the US and even international politics.

Trump will bring with him his own style of leadership, governed by instincts, hunches or persuasions, and is expected to usher in a new international order.

Judging by his rhetoric during the election campaign, the upcoming president is bound to upset most US stances on a variety of global issues, starting with the US-Russian relations, based not on geopolitical grounds or traditional ground rules but on unfamiliar basis.

Trump’s open declaration that he intends to minimise, or rather to undermine, the role of the UN and other international agencies and institutions is challenging all countries that have put their faith and trust in such organisations to help solve crises and challenges.

Trump’s friendly relation with Russian President Vladimir Putin remains a centrepiece of his foreign policy and the bedrock of his regional and global policies, and is expected to have far-reaching implications and repercussions.

The next US president’s confidence in the Russian leader remains unshaken despite the US intelligence community’s declaration that Putin personally ordered the hacking of US Democratic Party officials’ mail in a bid to “denigrate” Hillary Clinton, the Democratic party candidate, in the recent US presidential election and sway the results in Trump’s favour.

It is amazing that the 14-page report of the CIA, FBI and the National Intelligence Agency on the Russian intervention was rejected outright by Trump not on the basis of counterassessments but on the basis of his own “feeling” that Putin did nothing wrong.

Trump’s immediate reaction to the US intelligence report incriminating Putin was that it would be “foolish” not to forge the best of relations with Moscow. 

He relies on his whims and sentiments, not on facts, and that gives the US and the world a glimpse at how he will make national and global policies: in a manner that defies logic and facts.

This logic, or lack of it, is going to pose a threat to the US and the world at large. 

Trumps’ policies will be unpredictable. He ridiculed the UN as a bunch of nations engaged in socialising and promised to change the well-established ground rules on inter-state relations.

The international community is going to go through a period of turbulence not witnessed in recent times.

 

Many observers are betting on Trump fumbling during his term in office, in which case all options remain open.

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