Trump is Destroying America's Biggest Asset - The Global Gambit - Pyotr Kurzin

[TexasTowelie]

America’s alliances aren’t just diplomatic décor — they are instruments of power.

What has underpinned U.S. influence since the Second World War isn’t simply military strength, but a dense, carefully maintained network of allies that amplifies American reach, credibility, and deterrence. That system didn’t emerge by accident. It was built deliberately, over decades, through reassurance, restraint, and trust.

And that trust is now being tested.

What looks, on the surface, like blunt or transactional foreign policy is in fact something more corrosive: a steady erosion of alliance confidence. When commitments are questioned, allies aren’t just offended — they recalibrate. They hedge. They plan for a world in which Washington may not be there when it matters.

This is where tactics bleed into strategy.

As Sarah Paine explains, decisions taken at the tactical or operational level — a snubbed partner, a dismissed concern, a public threat — can compound over time into strategic consequences that are difficult to reverse. Alliances are not switched on and off at will. Once credibility frays, restoring it is far harder than losing it.

History offers warnings. Moments like Pearl Harbor remind us that escalation often follows misperception, neglect, and signals misread — especially between partners who assume shared interests will hold automatically.

So in this conversation, Sarah Paine and I unpack what the current U.S. approach to alliances is really putting at risk, why neglecting partners like Canada matters far more than it appears, and how short-term tactical choices can quietly reshape the long-term balance of power. The question isn’t whether alliances still matter — it’s how much damage can be done before their strategic value is rediscovered the hard way.

Chapters

00:00 The Importance of Alliance Networks
00:57 Tactical vs. Strategic Perspectives
02:51 Consequences of Disregarding Alliances
04:28 Hope vs. Reality in Foreign Policy