{"id":37968,"date":"2018-03-19T11:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T00:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=37968"},"modified":"2018-03-19T13:02:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T02:02:42","slug":"rexit-american-foreign-policy-axis-adults-cabal-cranks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rexit-american-foreign-policy-axis-adults-cabal-cranks\/","title":{"rendered":"Rexit and American foreign policy: from the \u2018axis of adults\u2019 to a cabal of cranks?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

\u2018Rexit\u2019\u2014the much rumoured departure of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson from Foggy Bottom\u2014has finally occurred. The so-called \u2018axis of adults<\/a>\u2019 composed of Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Adviser, HR McMaster\u2014viewed by some as a moderating influence on Donald Trump\u2019s more abrasive \u2018America First\u2019 foreign policy tendencies\u2014is now a man down. Moreover, HR McMaster is, according to Politico\u2019s<\/em> Susan Glasser<\/a>, also on his way out. This would leave the \u2018axis of adults\u2019 mantle resting solely on Mattis\u2019 shoulders.<\/p>\n

The question that remains, then, is what shape American foreign policy will take when Mattis inevitably exits stage left?<\/p>\n

While Tillerson has been lambasted as the \u2018worst secretary of state in living memory<\/a>\u2019 due to him overseeing a sharp reduction<\/a> in both the State Department\u2019s budget and policy expertise, and for his inability to develop a consistent relationship with the president and other key national security officials, his successor, Mike Pompeo, now looms as a major potential competitor for that title.<\/p>\n

\u2018Even implacable enemies of the administration,\u2019 Eliot Cohen asserted<\/a> in December 2017, should \u2018cheer\u2019 Pompeo\u2019s shift from the CIA at Langley to Foggy Bottom because \u2018he is a former Army officer, a successful politician, and a veteran of running a large bureaucracy\u2014the CIA. This means that, unlike Tillerson, he is used to motivating career people whom he cannot either fire or incentivize with money.\u2019<\/p>\n

Cohen failed to note, however, key ideological characteristics that make Pompeo a fellow-traveller of elements of the fringe right-wing that Trump has so actively courted since he began his presidential campaign in 2016.<\/p>\n

While Tillerson\u2019s ham-fisted management of Foggy Bottom may now be replaced with a sound pair of hands on the managerial side of the equation, Trump\u2019s appointment of Pompeo threatens to increase the influence of what can only be described as a cabal of cranks and conspiracy theorists on the direction of American foreign policy. The transition from Tillerson to Pompeo, Amanda Sloat has noted<\/a>, \u2018may be good for State Department personnel and processes but bad for policy\u2019.<\/p>\n

Pompeo, as both a congressman and director of the CIA, has clearly expressed views aligned with the fringe right and that challenge long-standing US commitments to various aspects of the \u2018rules-based order\u2019.<\/p>\n

As a congressman he regularly appeared on the radio program \u2018Secure Freedom Radio\u2019 hosted by the Center for Security Policy\u2019s Frank Gaffney. During one episode in February 2015, Pompeo and Gaffney speculated<\/a> that President Barack Obama had \u2018an affinity\u2019 with the cause of \u2018Islamic terrorism\u2019.<\/p>\n

Frank Gaffney, it should be noted<\/a>, has been a purveyor of an extreme right-wing conspiracy theory for decades. Gaffney argued during the 2016 election<\/a> that Trump was combatting a \u2018Red-Green-Black\u2019 axis between \u2018the Left\u2019, the Black Lives Matter movement and the \u2018Islamists\u2019 to subvert the United States. In this scenario Hillary Clinton, with her commitment to a neoliberal economic agenda, open borders, criminal justice reform, and support for conservative Middle Eastern states (such as Saudi Arabia) in the struggle against both Islamic State and the Assad regime, formed the \u2018connective tissue\u2019 of a conspiracy that would see \u2018the elimination of our country\u2019.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere Pompeo has made numerous and inflammatory statements depicting a civilisational war<\/a> between the \u2018Christian West and Muslim East<\/a>\u2019, supported the continued use of Guantanamo Bay and \u2018enhanced\u2019 interrogation techniques<\/a> in the \u2018war on terror\u2019, and as CIA Director called for regime change in North Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A particular lightning rod for his ire as a congressman was the Obama administration\u2019s negotiation of the nuclear deal with Iran<\/a>. For Pompeo, the nuclear deal not only amounted to an American \u2018retreat\u2019 from the Middle East, but sinister evidence of the Obama administration\u2019s conclusion \u2018that America is better off with greater Iranian influence in the Middle East\u2019. Unsurprisingly he has pushed strongly for decertification of the Iran deal, aligning him clearly with the known preferences of President Trump to \u2018get tough\u2019 on Tehran.<\/p>\n

If Rex Tillerson\u2019s tenure at the State Department was defined by a disconnect between Foggy Bottom and the White House, Pompeo\u2019s looks set to tune it to the president\u2019s own brand of belligerent American nationalism. This, as Jacon Heilbrunn notes, shouldn\u2019t be of comfort to friends and allies of the United States: \u2018Maybe the only thing worse<\/a> than Trump the isolationist is Trump the interventionist.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Rexit\u2019\u2014the much rumoured departure of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson from Foggy Bottom\u2014has finally occurred. The so-called \u2018axis of adults\u2019 composed of Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Adviser, HR McMaster\u2014viewed by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":37970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2070],"class_list":["post-37968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-us-foreign-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRexit and American foreign policy: from the \u2018axis of adults\u2019 to a cabal of cranks? | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rexit-american-foreign-policy-axis-adults-cabal-cranks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rexit and American foreign policy: from the \u2018axis of adults\u2019 to a cabal of cranks? | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018Rexit\u2019\u2014the much rumoured departure of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson from Foggy Bottom\u2014has finally occurred. The so-called \u2018axis of adults\u2019 composed of Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Adviser, HR McMaster\u2014viewed by ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rexit-american-foreign-policy-axis-adults-cabal-cranks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-19T00:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-19T02:02:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/25903571837_827c029bce_z.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Clarke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Clarke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rexit-american-foreign-policy-axis-adults-cabal-cranks\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/25903571837_827c029bce_z.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/25903571837_827c029bce_z.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":427},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rexit-american-foreign-policy-axis-adults-cabal-cranks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/rexit-american-foreign-policy-axis-adults-cabal-cranks\/\",\"name\":\"Rexit and American foreign policy: from the \u2018axis of adults\u2019 to a cabal of cranks? 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