American Diplomacy Links--January/February 2017.

• Author: Clack, George

"Confirming Team Trump: Tillerson and Mattis Face Changing Global Dangers"

No president, says the author, has faced the welter of challenges awaiting Donald Trump on January 20: "the simultaneous unraveling of the U.S.-led world order; loss of confidence among our allies; assertiveness of competing great powers; the dissolution of entire states; and the rise of barbarism, authoritarianism, and corrosive nationalism." State and Defense Department nominees Rex Tillerson and James Mattis need to realize that, while the promise of radical change is an applause line during a campaign, a healthy degree of continuity is an imperative to maintaining our leadership in the world.

By Strobe Talbott, Brookings Blog. Talbott is president of the Brookings Institution. From 1993 to 2001, he was ambassador-at-large and special adviser to the Secretary of State for the new independent states of the former Soviet Union, then Deputy Secretary of State for seven years. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/01/10/tillerson-mattis-face-changing-global-dangers/? utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=40 415255

"The World as Seen by Donald Trump"

In Trump's worldview, America comes first and everyone else is an asset or a hindrance. Europe deserves less attention than Russia, with which relations should briefly improve, and China, which will be expected to keep North Korea in check.

By Michael T. Klare, Le Monde Diplomatique. Klare is professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the author, most recently, of The Race for What's Left.

http://mondediplo.com/2017/01/02trump-world

"Russia vs. the Global Order: What Will Trump's Divided Administration Do About It?"

The author analyzes the congressional testimony of Trump nominees Tillerson and Mattis to speculate on how the new administration will respond to Russia's moves. "Russia," Frolov writes, "has now moved beyond Helsinki (a territorial status quo between the blocks) and is heading toward a new Yalta, where the entire architecture of the world order will be completely rearranged between the two (or three, if we include China) global superpowers. Yalta as we know it did not envision NATO or the EU, and neither must the next Yalta, Moscow hopes."

By Vladimir Frolov, the Moscow Times. Frolov, president of LEFF Group, a Moscow-based government relations firm, frequently writes about Russian foreign policy for the Moscow...