Free Trade

The sixth round of talks to update the NAFTA will begin later this month in Canada. But Canadian officials are increasingly concerned that President Trump will announce the United States will unilaterally withdraw—either as a negotiation tactic or as a way to shift toward Trump’s favored protectionism. Here is what you should know about the perennially controversial trade agreement.

They agreed. At least on the single issue of foreign trade, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agreed the United States must retreat from free trade agreements. In the midst of the most polarized presidential election in living memory, both major party candidates converged on the need to reconsider American-led globalization and take a more protectionist stand in foreign markets.

Is the liberal democratic order that has provided stability, prosperity, and freedom across the globe for the better part of 70 years in peril? Is America witnessing a slow fade of its core values, or is the country at a tipping point that will lead to a renewal of the spirit of liberty?

North Korea’s nuclear-weapons tests, missile launches, and threats to attack American territory are hostile acts. What is debatable is how the United States and allies should respond.

The Great War, which America entered a century ago this month, offers lessons for us today on democracy, trade, and arms races.

Trump appeared to revel in chaos on the campaign trail, but chaos theory does not hold when it comes to foreign policy. Consider some of the consequences—and these are the shortest of short-term consequences—of Trump’s early foreign policy decisions and pronouncements.

Given that America is (by far) Canada’s top trading partner, the prospective renegotiation of NAFTA is now by necessity Canada’s top foreign affairs priority.

This morning, British Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a speech thankfully detailing her vision for Brexit beyond vague references. Still, continued uncertainty makes this drama one of the top stories I’ll be watching through 2017 and 2018.

America has been mesmerized by two ideas that have given hazy coherence to the post-1989 world: “globalism” and “identity politics.”