“Mattis was the administration’s last representative of the traditional American view of its strategic role,” said Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at the Australia National University. “It will mean more erratic decision-making.”
That impact could be felt on a series of key foreign policy decisions Trump has to make in the early months of 2019, including whether to quit a Cold War-era nuclear treaty with Russia, end waivers that let allies keep buying Iranian oil and determine whether to add Venezuela to a list of state sponsors of terror.
Inside the White House, some aides close to the president said they felt unsettled by Mattis’s departure and expressed concern that it could affect foreign leaders’ perceptions of the administration’s stability…
“Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria without consulting his national security team will reinforce North Korea’s inclination to only deal with Trump,” Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, wrote in a tweet. “Trump has set up a dangerous dynamic that undercuts attempts to conduct real diplomacy.”
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