WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Kokinda says Trump is dismantling a decades-old foreign policy framework.
- She points to China, Iran, Venezuela, Greenland, and Gaza as signs of the shift.
- Kokinda says the Board of Peace is moving Gaza toward locally led reconstruction.
- She argues Rubio’s dual role marks a break from the Kissinger-era international order.
Susan Kokinda is arguing that President Donald Trump is dismantling an international framework that has shaped American foreign policy for decades, pointing to developments involving China, Iran, Venezuela, Greenland, Gaza and the Middle East as evidence of a broader geopolitical shift.
Kokinda said criticism surrounding Trump’s recent summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping missed what she believes is the larger significance of the meeting.
“When the president’s communications adviser releases something like this, you should pay attention,” Kokinda said.
“Now, the British press jumped all over it for being un-American. The neocons were shocked.”
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She said criticism came from both Republicans and Democrats, but argued that the controversy obscured a larger change.
“But behind that noise is the recognition that Donald Trump is dismantling an imperial framework that’s been in place for 50 years,” Kokinda said.
She pointed to a Chatham House discussion titled “China Rising, America in Decline?” and comments from Chatham House President Bronwen Maddox.
“China is the rising power, industrially, militarily, economically, while President Trump’s struggles in Iran, the war he chose to fight, and his possible looming rebuffs in the midterm elections indicate the setbacks of his administration and the weaknesses that America is showing,” Maddox said.
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Kokinda connected that assessment to the “Thucydides Trap,” a theory associated with Graham Allison involving conflict between a rising power and a declining one.
She then contrasted that theory with Xi’s recent remarks.
“And we can certainly find the right path for two great countries to get along on this planet we both call home,” Xi said.
“Our two militaries should maintain regular dialogue and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention. The Thucydides Trap can be overcome.”
Kokinda said the change in Xi’s language was significant because he had previously framed overcoming the Thucydides Trap as an open question.
“Let that sink in. What was an open-ended question in May is now a statement that the Thucydides Trap can be overcome,” Kokinda said.
She then cited Trump’s speech at the United Nations as an explanation for what she believes has changed.
“We have acted with decisiveness and speed to reshape the world stage and solve problems that have plagued us for far too long,” Trump said.
“So while others have talked, I have acted. While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them.”
Kokinda argued that Trump’s foreign policy moves in Iran, Venezuela and Greenland are reducing the influence of outside powers while strengthening national sovereignty.
“He’s acted in Iran: no more nuclear weapons, no more control of the Strait,” Kokinda said.
“That’s one of the Empire’s last geopolitical strangleholds gone.”
She also pointed to Venezuela and the Shield of the Americas, saying Colombia and Peru have joined an effort aimed at removing cartel and foreign influence.
“In Venezuela and with the creation of the Shield of the Americas, which now has added Colombia and Peru, nations are taking back their own sovereignty, cutting the cartels and outside powers out of the picture,” Kokinda said.
Kokinda also cited a Greenland treaty signed at the United Nations, which she said could help complete the Golden Dome strategic defense system.
She argued that the foreign policy changes are being matched by a domestic economic transformation.
“Donald Trump has done something no president has done in over a hundred years: revive the American system of economics and launch the biggest reindustrialization push since the World War II mobilization,” Kokinda said.
She said factory construction, equipment orders, capital expansion and blue-collar wages are already reflecting that push.
Kokinda then turned to Gaza and the Board of Peace, arguing that the administration is trying to replace outside management with local reconstruction and governance.
She cited Shadia Jaradat, head of the infrastructure and reconstruction program, who criticized the lack of implementation under previous plans.
“Excellencies, 20 years, over 34 master plans for Gaza, and zero implementation,” Jaradat said.
Jaradat said the new approach would make Gazans active participants in rebuilding their communities.
“There is a reason why every Arab mother wants an engineer in the family. Mine was one of them, and Gaza has no shortage of them,” Jaradat said.
“That’s why we will pre- pre-qualify, register, and support Gazan contractors, firms, engineers, and workers to work alongside international contractors.”
She continued, “Gazans will not only rebuild their cities; they will also rebuild their lives, economy, and future.”
Kokinda said the plan represents a move away from placing Gaza under indefinite control of outside powers.
“So instead of handing another mandate to some outside power to manage the wreckage forever, this is a sector-by-sector rebuild which can be run by the people who actually live there,” Kokinda said.
She also highlighted remarks from Ali Shaath, head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
“We want them to design and create their future by their own hands, not being a proxy for others,” Shaath said.
Kokinda described that statement as central to the broader shift she sees taking place.
“No longer a proxy for others. The end of the outside forces setting the agenda,” Kokinda said.
She then connected the current changes to Henry Kissinger, who once simultaneously served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.
Kokinda noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s temporary role as National Security Advisor has now been made permanent, giving him the same dual portfolio Kissinger once held.
She argued, however, that Rubio is using those positions for the opposite purpose.
“Now Marco Rubio holds that same portfolio on behalf of Donald Trump, and he is dismantling the very architecture that Kissinger created,” Kokinda said.
Rubio reinforced that approach during his United Nations press conference.
“The United States will always act, at least as long as President Trump is in office, we will always act in the national interest of our country, not in the interest of the international order,” Rubio said.
“We will never put the international order above the interest of the United States.”
Kokinda concluded that the developments involving China, Gaza and Rubio represent different pieces of the same transformation.
“Xi Jinping said that the Thucydides Trap can be overcome because the terms Kissinger built that trap on don’t apply to Donald Trump,” Kokinda said.
“Palestinians and Gazans are working with countries outside the great powers to create a real future. And the man who now holds Kissinger’s dual portfolio is the one dismantling everything Kissinger built with them.”
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