What Follows a ‘Sayonara’ Foreign Policy

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.”