The American Age turns 100 under threat

If 45th President Donald Trump has his way, the so-called American Age launched by 28th President Woodrow Wilson in Apr 1917 won’t reach its 100th birthday. The term describes self-assigned U.S. leadership of the Western world, and Trump’s campaign statements suggest he doesn’t want the responsibility.

Just after Trump’s election in November the German publication Der Spiegel pointed out that the West was constituted in its modern form in 1917 when World War I was raging in Europe and Wilson told his country that it was time for Americans to take responsibility for “peace and justice.” He called on Congress to declare war on Germany, framing the call around the idea that America has a duty to spread liberty across the world. “The world must be made safe for democracy,” he explained.

Trump has signaled that he plans to hand the responsibility for peace and justice to others. Trump wants nothing to do with globalization, according to Der Spiegel. He “preaches American nationalism, isolation, partial withdrawal from world trade and zero responsibility for a global problem like climate change.”

Trump has been hugely critical of NATO, a cornerstone of American foreign policy for more than 60 years. The BBC notes that Baltic nations will be newly vulnerable if Trump, as he has threatened, breaks with an article of the NATO alliance that obliges the United States to defend all other members in the event of an attack.

The Trump presidency will be 72 days old by the 100th anniversary of the American Age, long enough to tell whether he will be able to have his own way on throwing away traditional American foreign policy. Congress might have other ideas.