Donald Trump’s picks to run the Pentagon and State Department were among the incoming cabinet members making their case to the Senate this week, so it seems apropos to ask what, if anything, we’ve learned about the president-elect’s likely foreign policy.
Three conclusions leap out: First, the emphasis will be on showmanship rather than statecraft. Second, the United States will hone a “warrior ethos,” but aim it inward at America’s culture wars at least as much as outward at adversaries. And finally, every time the resulting policies approach coherence, they will crash into the immovable obstacles of internal contradictions.
