If the US stays in the Paris deal but misses its targets, the deal could look like a sham. But if Trump carries out his threat to withdraw, the US veto would be gone, and other nations might step up.
Ivan Kurilla, European University at St Petersburg
Relations between Russia and the United States have reached an all-time low since the US strike on Syria. But Moscow knows that Washington will need its support if tension rises with North Korea.
What vastly complicates Western policy in Syria is how to sanction Assad on one hand and deal with Islamic State on the other, without the country unravelling completely.
Regardless of how the US sending an aircraft carrier group to the Korean Peninsula plays out, the international community will ultimately have to accept and learn to manage a nuclear North Korea.
Uncertainty persists about what “America First” will mean for US-Asia policy, and the Secretary of State’s recent tour of the region leaves us none the wiser.
Tensions in Asia may soon boil over. If U.S. leaders fail to seek pathways to peace, the consequences may be grim, warns former National Security Council member.
Far from ‘making America great again’, Donald Trump’s sloganeering will deepen mistrust of US motives and irreparably damage any prospect of co-existence, let alone a more co-operative world order.