https://www.al-waie.org/archives/article/19934

The Trump administration focuses in its handling of foreign conflicts on the idea that it does not need external partners to resolve such crises. From the slogans adopted by Trump and the MAGA movement, “Make America Great Again” and “America First,” it follows that the U.S. does not need international partners and can resolve issues on its own. In other words, it seeks to monopolize solutions without the help or participation of others. Thus, its approach to conflict resolution has taken on an exclusionary nature, dismissing the involvement of partners.

This is something new in U.S. foreign policy that was not present even during Trump’s first term. For example, the current Trump administration officially canceled the role of the Quartet Committee in Sudan, which included Britain and Norway, even though it had existed since Trump’s first administration and continued under Biden. It also disabled the Minsk Group, which had been responsible for resolving issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan, for more than five years, and included Russia and France. Instead, America sponsored peace talks between the two countries alone, without consulting the group even out of courtesy.

In recent external conflicts, Trump’s administration insisted on completely ignoring international partners. In the Russia–Ukraine conflict, it ignored European states entirely. Trump met with Putin in Alaska privately, without consulting the Europeans. France and Britain tried to rally key European countries along with the European Commission to stand by Ukraine and join America in negotiations with Russia, but Trump excluded them and insisted on negotiating with Putin alone.

Some Russian officials even expressed dissatisfaction with European interference, especially by Britain, openly describing its role as an attempt to sabotage the ongoing negotiations between Russia and the U.S.

It was also reported that British Prime Minister Starmer coached Ukrainian President Zelensky on how to meet and deal with Trump, even on formalities. Afterward, Zelensky appeared before Trump in an elegant black suit, instead of a military uniform as before, and he thanked Trump six times in two minutes.

It is thus clear from these examples that the first characteristic of U.S. foreign policy under Trump in conflict management is exclusivity, resolving issues alone, without involving international powers, based on the conviction that America can handle them alone without partners.

The second feature of this policy is achieving the greatest possible material gain through extortion and pressure on disputing parties, in exchange for managing their conflicts. For example, in managing the conflict between Rwanda and Congo, American companies gained access rights to rare earth metals in eastern Congo, essential for the manufacture of microelectronics.

In the management of the India–Pakistan conflict, after the signing of an agreement, American companies were enabled to develop and extract Pakistan’s massive oil reserves. Intelligence cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan was also strengthened, with the Pakistani Army rather than the government becoming responsible for managing U.S.–Pakistani political relations, while the government’s role was reduced to nominating Trump for a Nobel Prize.

As for the Thai–Cambodian conflict, whose agreement was signed in Malaysia with Malaysian mediation, Trump declared that he had stopped the war between the two countries. In return, major trade agreements were announced that benefited U.S. companies in both countries, while Cambodia announced its nomination of Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, the peace agreement signed between the two presidents was accompanied by the announcement that the Zangezur Corridor would be renamed the “Trump Corridor.” Originally planned by Turkey to link Azerbaijan with the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchiva, inside Armenian territory, bordering Iran, and connecting to Turkey, a plan opposed by Iran and Russia, Armenia agreed to lease the corridor to the U.S. for 100 years. It was turned into one of the world’s most important trade routes, blocking Russia, China, and Iran from building their own corridors and projects in the region. America then reduced Turkey, the originator of the idea, to merely an instrument for implementing this massive U.S. commercial and geopolitical project. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev commented, “Trump achieved a miracle in less than six months.”

In addition to these vast material gains, the agreement pulled Armenia entirely out of Russian influence and out of the Russian–Chinese Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Azerbaijan was also firmly anchored under American influence.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. had previously secured Ukraine’s agreement to grant American companies half the profits from the extraction of rare minerals across all Ukrainian territories.

Thus, the American approach of exclusivity in resolving crises, and the pursuit of material gains, have become the most prominent features of U.S. foreign policy under the current Trump administration. They have contributed to dismantling international blocs, encircling and isolating China from Russia, weakening Europe, and leaving America as the sole dominant power on the international stage.

The U.S. has also come to understand well that Russia is not the Soviet Union, and poses no real threat to the West. Its quagmire in Ukraine for three years confirms its military weakness compared to the U.S. America no longer needs NATO to confront it, so there is no reason to maintain an alliance funded by U.S. money that serves no real purpose. The U.S. realized that Europeans are very weak, dragging America into conflict with Russia, to serve their own interests by proxy, and that they no longer deserve so much spending from the U.S. treasury. They are no longer an international power to be reckoned with, and thus should be dropped from the international equation.

This became evident at the Washington Conference held on 18/08/2025, attended by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the European Commission, NATO, and Ukrainian President Zelensky. They all appeared like schoolchildren before their teacher. Trump did not treat them as equals, but instead scorned them, seating them in rows of wooden chairs as listeners. He interrupted his meeting with them to call Russian President Putin in their presence, letting them hear what he wanted, and showing them their worthlessness, impotence, and insignificance.

Thus, this meeting amounted to a decisive American declaration that they were no longer main players in the international arena. Their reliance on the American umbrella for the past hundred years has led to their weakness and humiliation. They cannot even provide security guarantees for Ukraine on their own.

The world today, therefore, has come to consist of three globally influential military powers: America, Russia, and China. However, in terms of combined military and economic power, it is composed only of two world powers: America and China.