George Washington University hosted a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Sanger on how the Trump administration is redefining the United States’ role in the world.
The 2025 Walter Roberts Annual Lecture, "New Cold Wars: A Conversation with David Sanger," was co-hosted by the School of Media and Public Affairs, the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication and the Elliott School of International Affairs.
SMPA professor Frank Sesno, who is also the executive director of the GW Alliance for a Sustainable Future, moderated the discussion on Sanger’s latest book, “New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West.”
“I'm looking forward to our conversation, which will range through your book, how we've gotten to where we are, what's changed and what we've seen in recent days,” Sesno said.
Sesno began by highlighting the shifts in U.S. foreign policy during the Trump era. He pointed to key events, such as the tense exchange between President Trump and President Zelensky in the Oval Office, Vice President J.D. Vance’s controversial “random country” remark about France and the UK and Trump’s blunt approach to territorial disputes.
“The Trump administration in very short order has upended alliances, sort of redefined friend and foe,” Sesno said. “Is this a new world disorder?”
Sanger responded by noting that Trump’s foreign policy approach mirrors the older model of great power politics, where the U.S. asserts its dominance through raw power rather than relying on post-World War II institutions like the United Nations.
“I think it raises a couple of questions. The first is, is this the new world? In other words, if there was a system that was built after World War II, which was essentially a system about why it is that the world would operate by international law, by institutions like the UN, or whether it would be a world that would go back to great power politics,” Sanger said.
He pointed to Trump naming President William McKinley, who favored tariffs and led the U.S. during its territorial expansion in the late 19th century, as a leader he greatly admired.
Sanger said Trump believes that post-World War II institutions constrain U.S. power and prefers a system where the U.S. asserts its dominance. This approach relies on "raw power" rather than resolving disputes through international institutions.
Sesno then asked, referencing the title of Sanger’s book, if America is struggling to defend the West.
“Until 45 days ago, I would say we have had, from World War II on, a national policy that ran across Democrats and Republicans to do exactly that, defend the West,” Sanger said. “Now, an interesting question of what his (Trump’s) concept of the West is versus what their concept was,” Sanger said.
He explained when Truman established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over 75 years ago, the goal was for NATO countries to unite in defense of Western values. Over time, the definition of the West expanded to include countries like Australia, Japan and South Korea, all strong democracies with different systems. NATO itself also grew, with countries like Sweden and Finland joining, even if they weren't originally part of the alliance, as they shared similar Western values. Sanger said Trump is thinking in spheres of influence.
He said with Trump’s goals, an argument could be made that he's gaining short-term tactical gains, such as a U.S. firm gaining control of the Panama Canal ports. But Sanger said it’s coming at the cost of alienating key allies like Canada and Europe.
“We have done more to alienate the Canadians with whom we run our North American defense system in the past 45 days, and it may take decades to rebuild that,” Sanger said.
He shared an experience from a trip he took to Germany recently where he heard Friedrich Merz, who is likely to be the next chancellor, express his goals to make Germany independent of the U.S.
Sanger explained leaders in Canada and European countries feel uncertain about the U.S.'s shifting political landscape and feel that Trump represents a broader political movement rather than an isolated force.
“This comes at the cost of something much bigger, which is that we are in a world in which our alliances are our great expansionist power,” Sanger said. “That we've got tight allies who will step in for us, who've got bases around the world and the capability to go handle it. A Europe that combined is 450 million people, a combined world's second-largest economy, that's all of enormous value and you've got to begin to think, are the individual wins of getting the Panama Canal back into the hands of American investors, worth scrapping all of this?”
