On Tuesday 4th of December, Mike Pompeo the U.S Secretary of State, visited the headquarter of NATO in Brussels. There, he brilliantly formulated what a ” Trump doctrine ” could be. Only two day following the G20, frontly attacked multilateralism and several international institutions.
What is the context ?
NATO is the military arm of the West. A week before, an important incident occurred between Ukraine and Russia. The credibility of This organization is at stake. Indeed, Pompeo said that Nato is still functioning and has to supported in front of Russia. In Syria, as well as in Ukraine, Russia is flexing muscles and this trend is a real challenge for Mike Pompeo.
What were his critics ?
He blamed U.N peacekeeping missions and describes them as useless. For him, the European Union serves technocrats rather than European peoples. The IMF was targeted about several financial support adresses to Beijing. World Bank, WTO and IPC were also part of his speech.
Of course, Pompeo pointed out China, Iran and Russia as the main ennemies of the West and of multilateralism. The latter concept is blamed. Pompeo deemed multilateralism as dangerous of the U.S sovereignty.
What were his solutions ?
Mike Pompeo was critical but did not offer a lot of solutions. For him, multilateralism has to be a tool and not an end. He vaguely talked about a ” new liberal order “. Nevertheless, during his speech, no solutions or concrete applications were given to improve multilateralism. He mainly behaved as a critical analyst.
Is the world closing itself ?
The trend against multilateralism is real. Mike Pompeo is one piece in that great game. He stands in the same side than Orban, Bolsonaro and so on. From a certain point of view, Vladimir Putin is part of this side. However, geo-strategy impacts on ideology.
