Tobin Harshaw, Columnist

America Can Be Great Again, Even After Trump

Part 2 of a Q&A with Robert B. Zoellick on restoring U.S. leadership in international affairs.

January 30, 2021 at 1:00 PM UTC

Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion senior editor and columnist on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was deputy editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor.

He has a few pointers.
Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg

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It doesn’t take an expert in international relations to tell you that President Donald Trump made a hash of U.S. the leadership role in global affairs. But it's still worth talking to one, especially if he’s been at the center of epochal moments in modern history from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the fall of the global economy in the late 2000s.

Last week, I published the first part of an interview with Robert B. Zoellick, who among other jobs has been a top aide to former Secretary of State James Baker, deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush and president of the World Bank. (It’s available here.) He’s also the author of a new book, “America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy.” Below is a lightly edited version of the rest of our discussion:

Tobin Harshaw: So, if you’re part of President Joe Biden’s administration, what’s the first place that you look to for cooperation with Beijing?