Recently, US foreign minister Mike Pompeo visited Central Europe including Austria. Pompeo is a fervent follower and spokesman of President Trump. Both practice a special form of a nationalistic policy. This became also clear from the report of former security advisors John Bolton when he described his differences with President Trump. Trump has of course the interests of the United States on his mind -as he sees them - but primarily he wants to follow his own personal interest. And until now he was not keen on starting military intervention. On the contrary he wants to bring soldiers back from countries where the US army is fighting. He wants to be re-elected as a president who refrained from sending soldiers for external combats. He would rather use them for domestic purposes - for fighting demonstrators in US cities.
Not being keen on military intervention does not mean no to be aggressive. His attitude towards China, the canceling of the nuclear ( Vienna ) agreement with Iran, his animosity towards the Palestinians and even Trump‘s attitude towards Europe and in particular towards Germany can be called aggressive. Especially his fight with China for economic supremacy and political dominance in Asia is certainly very aggressive. One should not be surprised by the United States, trying to compete successfully with China, the rising Asian power. But Trump and Pompeo act in this respect similar to the team around George W. Bush, especially when Donald Rumsfeld explained, that the purpose defines the coalition not the coalition the purpose and the way to fight a war.
Trump is using the various economic instruments including sanctions, also towards European countries- for example concerning the pipeline North Stream 2. And he interferes directly into the capitalist market and private ownership to attain his aims. All in all, Trump has developed an aggressive policy and does not refrain from offending allies when it’s suit his national and/or private interest. This policy can be interpreted as a special from of the widely practiced aggressive foreign policy of the United States - with special personal characteristics and without military intervention.
What Bush and Trump pushed aside is a rational and moderate representation of American interests. One representative of this way to deal with foreign and security issues was Brent Scowcraft who recently passed away - just when Pompeo started his travel towards Central Europe. Scowcraft was national security advisor to President Gerald R. Ford and George H. Bush. He was very critical towards the Georg W. Bush’s policy in the Middle East and rejected the US attack of Iraq. He was equally critical of the election of Donald Trump, he sided even with Hilary Clinton at the election campaign.
When I could meet him in Washington he was extremely cautious and moderate in expressing US interests. His way to deal with security issues was taken up by President Obama - perhaps not always successful. But what became clear in the last years, is that those in the US, who were critical of the interventionist side of the US policy became very rare. With Brent Scowcraft one of the well known spokesman of such a “reasonable” US policy died. Now, maybe Joe Biden will get a chance at the forth coming election. But it is much too early to be sure. Trump will even strengthen and maximize his nationalistic and aggressive foreign policy. And he will sanction all those who are not ready to follow his line. And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be his submissive instrument in implementing such a policy. Central European countries should not fall into the trap of Trump's/Pompeo‘s kind words, which intend to weaken Europe and enhance divisions inside the European Union.
Dr. Hannes Swoboda, President of the International Institute for Peace (IP), started his career in urban politics in Vienna and was elected member of the European Parliament in 1996. He was Vice President of the Social Democrat Group until 2012 und then President until 2014. He was particularly engaged in foreign, enlargement, and neighborhood policies. Swoboda is also President of the Vienna Institute for International Economics, the Centre of Architecture, the University for Applied Science - Campus Vienna, and the Sir Peter Ustinov Institute.