Op-Ed Contributor

Trump and Bolton’s Plan to Isolate Allies and Encourage Enemies

By Wendy R. Sherman

President Trump announced that John R. Bolton would be his next national security adviser. Mr. Bolton shares the president’s tough approach on foreign policy.CreditCreditJoshua Roberts/Reuters

John R. Bolton, President Trump’s new national security adviser, has never met a war he didn’t want.

Mr. Bolton defends the 2003 invasion of Iraq and he advocates attacking North Korea, too. He believes that the United States should have bombed Iran years ago, rather than negotiating an international agreement to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Since going into force in 2016, that deal has blocked Tehran’s path to a nuclear weapon and prevented a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. By every account, Iran is complying with the agreement, has committed to never obtaining a nuclear weapon and has subjected itself to rigorous monitoring and verification.






The Europeans’ greatest objection is on the issue of the “sunset.” They believe, accurately, that Iran has committed to never obtaining a nuclear weapon, is complying with the terms of the deal, and there are mechanisms in the deal to both review and sanction if it becomes necessary. European diplomats rightly feel that Mr. Trump is demanding that they solve a political problem he created by campaigning against the deal.

Mr. Trump’s nixing of the deal won’t do America much good with the rest of the world, either. Important allies and partners, like South Korea, Japan and India, greatly reduced their reliance on Iranian oil in service to the negotiations that produced the nuclear agreement. Sabotaging the deal will sour these relationships. Moreover, these countries will balk at economic sanctions on Iran that are reimposed in the absence of diplomacy. Mr. Trump may get some level of compliance thanks to the reach of American banking sanctions, but he will also spawn distrust and resentment, and push other countries closer to China as a more reliable financial partner.

Killing the Iran deal will also be an early blow to the forthcoming nuclear negotiations with North Korea. Mr. Trump most likely believes that nixing the Iran accord will somehow show North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, that he does not make “bad” deals. In reality, Mr. Kim will wonder if he can believe in any agreement offered by an American president.



Wendy R. Sherman, a former under secretary of state for political affairs, was the United States’ lead negotiator for the Iran nuclear agreement. She is the author of the forthcoming “Not For the Faint of Heart: Lessons in Courage, Power and Persistence.”


A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: The Trump And Bolton Disaster. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe