For subscribers
It isn’t just Trump. America’s whole reputation is shot
What happens when a superpower goes rogue.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Over the last month and a half, America has smashed a lot of its friendly relationships to smithereens.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
David Brooks
Follow topic:
Many years ago, I asked a friend who had been hired as a senior foreign policy official what he’d learnt in government that he didn’t know beforehand. He replied: “I used to think policymaking was 75 per cent about relationships. Now I realise it’s 95 per cent about relationships.”
It’s very hard to do big things alone. So competent leaders and nations rely on relationships built on shared values, shared history and shared trust. They construct coalitions to take on the big challenges of the age, including the biggest: whether the 21st century is going to be a Chinese century or another American century.
