President-elect Donald Trump’s recent refusal to rule out going to war to annex Greenland and reoccupy the Panama Canal, and his threats to use economic pressure to annex Canada, may be mere trolling. Trump seems to relish saying things that send people scurrying, chattering, and expressing outrage. Trump may also be seeking, as former Congressman Tom Malinowski shrewdly suggested, to distract from the difficulty of fulfilling the promises that got Trump elected, like lowering prices.  Trump’s threats may also be designed to throw Canada, Denmark and Greenland, and Panama off balance as a prelude to some sort of negotiation under pressure, which Trump can then tout as a success for “America First.” The United States is unlikely to start wars against allies and friends. For one thing, Trump would own the consequences, which […]

The December 7 trilateral meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron, US President-elect Donald Trump, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral signaled a possible convergence of views regarding a way forward in Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. The meeting might have helped dissipate the widespread fear among Europeans that the president-elect would settle for a deal throwing Ukraine to the wolves. It also alleviated some US perceptions that Ukrainians were too demanding in their approach to a deal and that Europeans were unwilling to commit. Several European nations have been clear that their end goal is a strategic victory for a Ukraine integrated in the Western security order. Beyond its general support for this goal, France has repeatedly engaged with other European leaders on future legal, political, military, […]