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The world’s leading democracies are struggling to govern
Across the G-7, the political centre is fracturing and Donald Trump will make the problem worse.
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Mr Donald Trump’s interventions may create a situation where the leaders of America’s closest allies come to regard the US president not as a friend but as a dangerous political enemy.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Gideon Rachman
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The Group of Seven (G-7) is the “steering committee of the free world”, according to Mr Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. If so, the free world has a problem. The majority of G-7 governments are now so burdened with domestic political problems that they are incapable of steering their own countries – let alone the free world.
Consider the political situations in France, Germany, Canada and Japan, as well as South Korea, which is not formally a member of the G-7 but routinely attends the summits.
