KOREA EXPERT
NATIONAL SECURITY
WALID PHARES A Lebanese Maronite who, while in Beirut, had ties with the hard line Christian militia at the height of that country’s Chr istian-Muslim civil war, Phares is a Trump campaign foreign policy advisor (and a Fox News analyst) who is widely expected to join the White House national security council. In books and interviews he advances the view that Islamic fundamentalists have infiltrated U.S. government agencies and are corroding democracy.
AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL
VICTOR CHA
DAVID FRIEDMAN
Trump’s transition team is expected to appoint the former George W. Bush administration Asia director at the National Security Coucil to a State or Defense Department post handling Korean and Japan relations. Cha is an expert on Korea and Japan and is currently senior advisor at the Center of Strategic and International Studies, the Washington think tank and a professor at Georgetown University.
Trump’s appointment of his lawyer as ambassador to Israel is in line with the President-elect’s determination to break with long-standing U.S. policy in the region.The Israeli newspaper Haaretz says Friedman is “more far right in his views than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” He is not a supporter of the two state solution, and doesn’t think the settlements are an obstacle to peace. According to Trump’s campaign promise, Friedman will oversee the move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
AMBASSADOR TO CHINA
TERRY BRANSTAD The Iowa governor has known China’s President Xi Jinping since 1985, when the Chinese leader visited Iowa on an agricultural exchange, and calls him “an old friend.” A good start, but can that friendship survive Trump’s hard line on China, vowing to push back against what he calls China’s unfair economic practices, and establishing early contact with Taiwan?
FOREIGN POLICY AND SECURITY PART II
I
f nothing else, Donald Trump’s intelligence briefing on how President Putin ordered a campaign to help him win creates problems for his friendly Russia policy. His appointment of the highly respected former Indiana Senator Dan Coats as his director of national intelligence – seen as an attempt to atone for his earlier derision of the intelligence community – didn’t help either. Coats was a sharp critic of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Trump’s subsequent tweet that “only stupid people” or “fools” would think that “having a good relationship with Russia” was a bad thing was more consistent with the President-elect’s open admiration for Vladimir Putin and his stated desire for good bilateral relations. And Putin has tried to help the budding romance along by halting
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
the usual retaliation by Russia when the Obama administration expelled 35 Russian embassy staffers in response to the election sabotage – a move which Trump described as ”smart.” But it remains to be seen how Trump can sell improving the existing strained relations between Washington and Moscow. Lifting or easing the U.S. sanctions in place against Russia would meet strong opposition from GOP lawmakers as well as Democrats. He can argue that the bigger threat lies in a globally ascendant and more openly aggressive China, and the United States cannot afford to simultaneously antagonize both Moscow and Beijing. Throughout the campaign Trump has identified China as the aggressive trading rival that needs to be checked -- a posture that could lead to an
| J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y | washingtonlife.com
early economic confrontation. Another area of tension in Asia is North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, which Trump has pledged to stop. Trump, who understands the usefulness of creative tension – playing off rival groups against each other – in his business dealings would easily grasp the strategy of keeping Russia friendly while he engages China. Hence, for example, his nomination of Texas oilman Rex Tillerson, who has close personal ties with Putin, as his secretary of state. But in addition, say Trump watchers, the President-elect feels he can deal with the Russians because he married two women with Slavic backgrounds, and that probably leads him to believe that he understands the way the Eastern European mind works.
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