US President Donald Trump has been accused of weaponizing economic globalization. Sanctions, tariffs, and the restriction of access to dollars have been major instruments of his foreign policy, and he has been unconstrained by allies, institutions, or rules in using them.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has shown little interest in public diplomacy. And yet public diplomacy – a government’s efforts to communicate directly with other countries’ publics – is one of the key instruments policymakers use to generate soft power, and the current information revolution makes such instruments more important than ever.

Washington’s sudden hostility to its former role as a guardian of global stability has raised questions about how the international order will evolve. At the UN this week, Trump slammed multilateral diplomacy and global cooperation. President Xi Jinping of China (who was absent from the UN meetings) has continued to embrace these ideals.

The soft power of inspiration is not the only ethical tradition in American foreign policy. There is also an interventionist and crusading tradition.

Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s likely nominee to be the next Secretary of State, should be seen as a signal that the administration of President Trump is about to paint China as the new public enemy number one.

Regarding China, Pompeo is likely to offer more of the same mixed approach that has thus far characterized the Trump administration’s policy. On the one hand, Pompeo has endorsed the notion that China is an economic threat to the United States, and on the other hand, Pompeo has spoken positively of Xi Jinping, particularly with reference to China’s role in helping to place pressure on North Korea.

Trump has made a mess of US diplomacy. How has he gotten away with it?

The evidence is clear. Donald Trump’s presidency has eroded America’s soft power. Only 30% of people recently polled by Gallup in 134 countries held a favorable view of the United States under Trump’s leadership, a drop of almost 20 points since Barack Obama’s presidency.

Washington’s current Asia-Pacific strategy is financially unsustainable. Instead of trying to organize a containment system, Washington should focus on advancing its few serious interests, such as freedom of navigation. Otherwise the U.S. should step back and leave China’s neighbors free to respond to whatever they believe necessary.

Dividing the world into camps of “free societies” and “repressive regimes”, and proposing to collaborate with countries of similar values to deal with “repression”, sends a message that threatens to split the international community.