Noah Feldman, Columnist

Trump May Find Surprise Doesn't Work for a Superpower

The U.S.'s global dominance is based on its predictable foreign policy.

February 6, 2017 at 12:30 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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One emerging theme of the Trump administration’s foreign policy so far has been destabilization and surprise. President Donald Trump has used phone calls and tweets to shake up previously rock-solid relationships like those with Australia and Mexico. Traditional allies in Europe and Asia are worried about whether they can still rely on the U.S. for protection from Russia and China respectively.

Changing the status quo in surprising ways can be an effective foreign policy strategy, as Russian President Vladimir Putin showed with the unexpected takeover of Crimea and his intervention in Syria.