Former MI6 boss: America's declining global leadership under Trump is 'biggest menace to the world'
But he doesn't necessarily blame Mr Trump specifically for the scenario he finds himself in
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Your support makes all the difference.America’s declining world role under Donald Trump’s leadership is the greatest menace facing the global community, a former head of the Secret Intelligence Service says.
“The biggest threat the world faces is how we all adjust to the progressive withdrawal of responsible American leadership and the network of alliances that America maintained with Europe, with Asian countries and the pattern of alliances and partnerships they had across this region”, John Sawers told an Israeli security conference according to Agence France Presse.
“It's going to have a major disruptive effect and no one is yet adjusting to it”, Mr Sawers added.
He also noted that some of the affects have already been felt on the international stage.
“It is now having a major impact in the security world, and I think it's how we adjust to that — the behaviours of other countries trying to take advantage of it — which poses the biggest threat in the world”, he said.
Mr Trump has taken a series of actions since becoming president that have pulled the US away from international leadership. That includes lukewarm pledges to assist in ensuring the security of NATO allies, and withdrawing the US from the 2015 Paris climate change accords.
Mr Sawers says that the populist uprising in the US has led to a massive change in politics on a global scale.
“I've got serious reservations about Donald Trump as president of the United States”, he said. “But I see him not as the cause of these problems, but as a consequence of the changes in American society and America's willingness to uphold the burdens of the world as it has for the past 70 years or so”.
There may be several contributing factors, he said. That includes a recovery from the world financial crash that has still left average workers in distress, as well as a lack of success in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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