February 2017 — Page 3

I can’t vouch for Jordan Greenhall – I am unfamiliar with his work – but this piece is definitely worth a read (and a few re-reads). It’s a very detailed theoretical investigation into what’s going on at the moment from a writer that seemed very well-versed in system theory.

While many things have changed in the world in the past two years, 2016 saw what looks like a phase transition in the political domain. While the overall phenomenon is global in scale and includes Brexit and other movements throughout Europe, I want to focus specifically on the victory of the “Trump Insurgency” and drill down into detail on how this state change will play out.

Source: Jordan Greenhall: Situational Assessment 2017: Trump Edition – Deep Code

This article laying out the Trump outlook on the world and approach to foreign policy could prove to be an important explanation and contextualization of just what’s going on at the moment.

At the moment, Jacksonians are skeptical about the United States’ policy of global engagement and liberal order building—but more from a lack of trust in the people shaping foreign policy than from a desire for a specific alternative vision. They oppose recent trade agreements not because they understand the details and consequences of those extremely complex agreements’ terms but because they have come to believe that the negotiators of those agreements did not necessarily have the United States’ interests at heart. Most Jacksonians are not foreign policy experts and do not ever expect to become experts. For them, leadership is necessarily a matter of trust. If they believe in a leader or a political movement, they are prepared to accept policies that seem counter-intuitive and difficult.

Source: The Jacksonian Revolt: American Populism and the Liberal Order by Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs

Archives for February 2017