Do You Support the Global Expansion of Democracy?

A Saturday Prompt

In less than a month, it will be 2026, the 250th anniversary year of our nation’s founding and the beginning of an extraordinary democratic experiment. Given the anti-democratic regime controlling our White House, it’s going to be quite a year filled with cognitive dissonance.

That became even more obvious with the release yesterday of the 33-page “National Security Strategy,” which seeks to set out the foreign policy agenda and guiding principles of this second Trump term. In this brief prompt, I won’t explore the document in detail, but note some of the overarching worldview, including its hostility to “the trajectory” of Europe and its assertion that the European continent is facing “civilizational erasure” because of the flow of immigrants and the failures of its leaders.

It goes on to suggest the revival of Europe’s “former greatness” means supporting nationalism and far-right “patriotic” European parties, which would include, for example, Alternative for Germany (AfD), an extremist neo-Nazi party. Harkening back to Vice President J.D. Vance’s arrogant attack on mainstream Europeans and support for the far-right at the Munich Security Summit in February, it complains that many of these leaders “trample on basic principles of democracy to suppress opposition.” At the same time, while urging “strategic stability with Russia” and “an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine,” this document calls for “ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.”

Out is support for democratic ideals and honestly defending their expression and expansion. In is foreign policy as a money-making venture. The document describes the Middle East as “a source and destination of international investment.” And it goes further in depicting its refusal to stand up for democracy or human rights by calling for “dropping America’s misguided experiment with hectoring these nations—especially the Gulf monarchies—into abandoning their traditions and historic forms of government.” (We already got an odious whiff of that mindset last month when Trump embraced Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and excused his role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.)

Gone is the mindset contained within the 2017 “National Security Strategy”: “China and Russia want to shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests.” Now China is cast not as an adversary, but as an economic competitor. Commerce is the priority, not the pursuit of democratic values.

In the same vein, addressing Latin America, the document discusses a “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine” that would “restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere.” That not only means “to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region,” it aggressively states, but for American diplomats to pursue “major business opportunities in their country, especially major government contracts.”

Here’s how the incisive foreign policy analyst Alexander Vindman, who publishes Why It Matters on Substack, summarizes the Trump regime’s vision: It “represents a real crossing of the Rubicon in that the United States has signaled its intent to withdraw from the key regional alliances and abandon any notion of promoting democracy abroad or defending the liberal international order.” This means “abandoning our allies and folding to our adversaries,” he writes, alarmingly noting that the damage wrought could “take generations to mend.”

Once again, I think it’s important to distinguish between Trump’s America and a democratic America that supports its allies, defends the Constitution and recognizes the value of an international community of democracies built over eight decades since World War II. In this vision, it’s understood that a proudly democratic America can be a soft-power beacon that encourages our fellow humans around the world to be more confident—that they can pursue freedom in the face of dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. This is the vision Trump is working aggressively to destroy.

So what do you think? Do you support the global expansion of democracy? Do you think this stated strategy—which is essentially a set of guideline without the force of law—will further undermine the international liberal order? In turn, perhaps you think the U.S. overstepped its bounds in pushing its democratic vision or missed economic opportunities by refusing to use more aggressive tactics. Lastly, do you fear, like Vindman, that this could take generations to fix? Or could a a new administration with a positive, progressive leader successfully rebuild trust after 2028?

As always, I look forward to your thoughts and the opportunity for this community to learn from each other. Please do be respectful in your remarks. Trolling will not be tolerated.

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