What Follows a 'Sayonara' Foreign Policy

What Follows a ‘Sayonara’ Foreign Policy

Posted: July 3rd, 2020

By John McLaughlin

John E. McLaughlin is the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He served as Acting Director of Central Intelligence from July to September 2004 and as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from October 2000 to July 2004. He was a US Army Officer in the 1960s, with service in Vietnam.

Cipher Brief Expert and former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin is a distinguished practitioner in residence at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He served as the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2000-2004 and Acting Director of the CIA in 2004.

OPINION — Attending the annual international security conference in Munich, Germany, early this year, I heard Trump administration officials tell a skeptical audience that the United States was still “leading” the world. A European official turned to me and said: “They should substitute ‘v’ for ‘d’ because it feels more often like this administration is leaving the world.”

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