American Credibility in the Age of Trump

Gregory A. Daddis

Security, Americas

Credibility on the world stage is an integral party of American grand strategy—if not U.S. foreign policy writ large.

What best defines the “credibility” of the United States as a global power? In terms of American foreign policy and national security, who determines whether our nation is a “credible” ally or adversary?

The recent resignation letter from Secretary of Defense James Mattis suggests that these questions still matter to sober-minded policymakers. In using terms like “resolute and unambiguous,” “clear-eyed,” and “solidarity,” Mattis arguably was offering a primer on the importance of credibility in U.S. foreign relations.

To maintain the nation’s place as a global power, the argument goes, American credibility matters. Our alliances are based on it. Our enemies make calculations with not only our intentions, but our authenticity in mind. When President Barack Obama, for instance, decided not to intervene in Syria after Bashar Assad crossed an American “red line” by using chemical weapons, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asserted that Obama’s failure to act was “damaging” because “the credibility of the United States [was] on the line.”

But how much should credibility alone determine our nation’s foreign policy and grand strategy?

Without question, any nation’s foreign policy has multiple aims—determining threats to national security, articulating a vision of the future, to both friends and enemies alike, and promoting American prosperity to name just a few. And, as the recent National Security Strategy states, adversaries like Russia use “subversive measures to weaken the credibility of America’s commitment” to allies like those in Europe.

This linking of security to credibility is hardly new. Throughout the American war in Vietnam, U.S. presidents assumed the nation’s prestige, and thus capacity to influence the rest of the globe, rested upon them acting purposefully in defending and expanding American interests. They were not alone.