Center on the United States and Europe

There is a need for France to be that moralizing voice, even if Macron is sometimes screaming into the void. If you don’t have a France that annoys the U.S. on Iraq, that disagrees on Iran, that pushed for the Paris climate accords, no one else will do it.

Trump has approached diplomatic negotiations like business deals, including personal engagement, high stakes gambles and threats to walk away. Yet international relations has complicated and sometimes dangerous second-order effects...Iran, North Korea and China are challenges that predate Trump—so the question is whether his approach is making things worse.