Trump walks a fine line between madness and the madman theory |
President Donald Trump‘s strategy toward Iran raises questions about his grip on reality. Each claim of impending peace, followed by further military engagement, has led to allegations that the president may be a madman. Like President Richard Nixon before him, however, it is possible that far from being insane, Trump is simply embracing the madman theory. This is an extreme form of coercive bargaining, adopted by a sane leader who feigns irrationality to create the impression of insanity in the mind of an opponent. The leader then threatens disproportionate force to gain a favorable outcome. What Nixon once did selectively and in secret, Trump does openly and regularly.
As I explain in my new book, US Grand Strategy and the Madman Theory, its potential use as a component of foreign policy is a highly contentious proposition. After all, it deliberately undermines long-standing diplomatic practices with the use of provocative action.
Washington is strangling Head........