In two months, US President Donald Trump has upended Nato and set the world on course for a new transnational alliance.
This is according to University of Southern California professor Greg Treverton, a former chair of the US National Intelligence Council, who gave a lecture at Nelson Mandela University’s Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (Canrad) in partnership with The Herald.
The co-editor of the book Truth to Power: A History of the National Intelligence Council, said the hawkish stance Trump had taken towards Europe created a void which other leaders were now trying to fill.
“What Trump has done in one stroke is end the US and European alliance.
“The tongue-lashing of [Ukranian president Volodymyr] Zelensky at the Oval Office is kind of the end; it symbolises the end of Nato, or at least the kind of relationship that I worked hard on and got used to.
“The timing can’t be worse because while Europe has done well in trying to fill the gap and up its game, like [French president Emmanuel] Macron, it’s been difficult.
In an extraordinary exchange at the White House in late February, when Zelensky went to negotiate a peace deal, the two leaders were involved in a heated argument in front of the media.
Treverton was the chair of the US National Intelligence Council from 2014-2017 and vice-chair from 1993-1995.
Amid the global fallout of the Trump “Liberation Day” tariffs, Treverton said there also seemed no clear strategy on what the president wanted to achieve.
“Before the last two months, I said the world was moving towards two clubs, one around the US and the other around China, not like the Cold War but closer to where countries could hedge bets.
“We then got tariff mania, and we have seen chaos that seems to have no purpose or make economic sense.
“If they are to bring manufacturing in the US, they need to be permanent but if they are a bargaining chip to get countries to do what he wants that won’t have the effect of moving long-term jobs,” he said.
Trump announced he would be imposing sweeping tariffs on trading partners around the world with SA exports to the US being hit with duties of 31%.
He has since announced a 90-day pause on what he termed the “reciprocal” tariffs.
Treverton was invited by Canrad to speak under the theme “A World Upside Down”. The respondent was NMU professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast.
The Herald
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