“Donald Trump” and “grand strategy” are mutually exclusive terms. Events here in Thailand have just proved the point again. Early in his presidency, President Trump scrapped the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade bloc that would have put the United States at the center of a trade zone that represented about a third of the global economy. Now, 2½ years later, China is putting itself at the center of an alternative trade zone that represents about a third of the global economy. It turns out there are real costs to a president using foreign policy to advance his personal and political interests rather than worrying about the national interest. Still, it takes a special level of hubris to thumb your nose at a $49.5 trillion trade bloc that […]