{"id":3548,"date":"2017-04-27T15:28:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T19:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=3548"},"modified":"2017-04-27T15:28:40","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T19:28:40","slug":"trumps-syria-strike-ignites-foreign-policy-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2017\/04\/27\/trumps-syria-strike-ignites-foreign-policy-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Syria Strike Ignites Foreign Policy Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY STEWART COARD – STAFF WRITER<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On April 6th, President Trump ordered 59 Tomahawk missiles launched at the Syrian air base holding the same planes used to carry out chemical attacks on civilians.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The move has spurred a great deal of controversy, with some extolling the president for taking action against Assad, while others despair at increased United States military action in the Middle East. Some have complained that the strikes in Syria contradict Trump\u2019s campaign promises to reduce America\u2019s role in international politics and conflict.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that Trump has a coherent foreign policy,\u201d explained Dr. Dina Badie, a professor of International Studies at Centre, who\u2019s focus is on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East. \u201cHis calculations are driven by domestic concerns rather than foreign realities. He has reversed on China, he has reversed on NATO, he has reversed on Russia, he has reversed on Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not convinced he has a strategy,\u201d Badie elaborated. \u201cI think we see all these contradictions because these contradictions are real. I don\u2019t know that he is going to be able to reconcile those contradictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Badie also speculated on the source of the confusion and chaos in Trump\u2019s policy. \u201cWith that said, I think it is very difficult for any president, Trump or otherwise, to make really fundamental, drastic changes in foreign policy. He made these promises that were pretty dramatic in terms of the US\u2019s role in the world. There are all these contradictions I think because this Trump\u2019s process of learning, going from a candidate with these visions grounded in a lack of knowledge about foreign policy and learning more about foreign policy and shifting closer to what his predecessors have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Badie also stated that the president \u201cis learning on the job and the learning curve is very steep for foreign policy,\u201d emphasizing the administration’s growing pains.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Badie expressed little concern that the strikes would negatively affect the United State\u2019s position in the region. \u201cI think that the United States is generally aligned with countries in the Middle East that are opposed to Assad. I think we are already on the anti-Assad side, whether or not we are actively involved in ousting him from power. It does matter though, that the United States would be opposed to Assad. It would be very difficult to start any diplomatic initiatives that would involve Assad.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Rick Axtell, a professor of religion who has worked with international refugee issues, seemed skeptical that the strikes will positively, or negatively, affect the refugee crisis in Syria. \u201cWill this have any effect? Not on the refugee situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Similar to Badie, Axtell seemed unsure that the strike was part of any greater plan. \u201cI don\u2019t know that it will have any effect, because I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a policy behind it. I don\u2019t think it signals increased military involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also worried that the presence of chemical weapons actually meant little change in the conflict. \u201cWhat Assad is doing with conventional I weapons are also criminal. This is anti-civilian warfare and he has been doing that for years, without chemical weapons and it seems to me that the world isn\u2019t reacting to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Axtell went on to express concern for the refugee crisis stemming from the conflict. \u201cI\u2019m troubled by the rhetoric about refugees. These are war victims and the world needs to help them resettle and hopefully end the war, so that they can also go back home if that\u2019s what they choose to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hannah Gibbs, a sophomore at Centre, worried about the potential for increased military involvement. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be good to up those,\u201d she said, speaking on air strikes. \u201cI don\u2019t think inciting violence in countries where we\u2019re already questioning whether or not we should be involved is a good idea for us as a country, especially considering what we just did in Syria.\u201d
\nGibbs felt the strikes would lead \u201cto a more volatile system and more violence on a world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY STEWART COARD – STAFF WRITER On April 6th, President Trump ordered 59 Tomahawk missiles launched at the Syrian air base holding the same planes used to carry out chemical attacks on civilians.   The move has spurred a great deal of controversy, with some extolling the president for taking action against Assad, while others […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}