As Donald Trump shocked the world by winning the race for the US presidency, the major question now is how the world will deal with the new US president given his views and prescriptions on US relations with the world, including Western allies. I believe that this historical juncture in US relations with the world is similar to another moment, at the end of the 1990s, when the former US president Bill Clinton left the presidency, leaving the US with a strong economy and recognised by the world as the sole superpower. The major question at this time was how the world would deal with this overwhelming power. Scholars wrote at this moment about “taming American power.” This question coincided with the coming of Republican president George Bush Jr. During the 1990s, a group known as the “neoconservatives” introduced their project of the “New American Century”, arguing that America should “seize the moment” and practise its world hegemony. Clinton was not convinced by their arguments. His policy was to build economic and political alliances. The opening for the neoconservatives came with the George Bush presidency. They were enhanced after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an unprecedented event in the US history, targeting US economic and military institutions. George Bush, ready to accept neoconservative arguments, adopted a strategy based on unilateral action, ignoring world organisations and international law. This strategy led to two wars, on Afghanistan and Iraq, with all their dire consequences on US relations with its allies and particularly the Islamic world. At this new moment, now, how the world will deal with Donald Trump, particularly if he seeks to implement his worldviews, as expressed during the presidential campaign? The only rational way to deal with Trump is to overcome his ignorance about the world and regional issues. He needs to be subject to a process of education, or taming. This process will depend, inside America, on the major institutions that shape US policies: The US Congress, the foreign and defence institutions, the National Security Council, etc. It will also depend on the personalities Trump selects to occupy major posts in his administration, on the one hand, and the capacity of world leaders to play a major role in educating and taming Trump, on the other. EU leaders have already recognised this need, and invited Trump to get together to discuss America's relations with its European allies. Considering the simplified views and comments expressed on Arab world issues during the campaign, the Arab world and its major powers, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, bears responsibility to join the process of educating Trump, to explain the complexity of the Arab crisis, and what they expect from his administration, to help reach political settlements — in particular stopping the prevailing chaos in Syria, Libya and Yemen. As the experience of Iraq proved, chaos following the American war created the right environment for terrorist groups to establish themselves. Reducing chaos will help deny terrorists the environment in which they thrive. The writer is former executive director of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs.
