Throwing it all away over the Mercator projection

Summary

[WARNING: COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF PROFANITY ARE USED IN THIS ONE.]This newsletter is primarily about Donald Trump’s galactically stupid decision to sanction European countries over Greenland. First, however, the hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World would like to take a somewhat circuitous route to get there — namely, through Iran. As noted a few days ago, Trump’s ability to apply maximum pressure on Iran was more limited than Trump’s rhetoric suggested. Sure enough, Trump opted not to launch any strikes last week even though he had threatened to do so if Iran engaged in any kind of large-scale crackdown. The Washington Post provides some backstory on that decision: Trump had not officially given the strike order, but his top security advisers expected him to imminently authorize one of the military options presented to him and were girding themselves for a late night.The Pentagon advertised that a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Roosevelt, had entered the Persian Gulf. Allies had been alerted that a U.S. strike was likely, according to a person familiar with the matter, and ships and planes were on the move. Personnel at the sprawling al-Udeid U.S. air base in Qatar were advised to evacuate to avoid an expected Iranian counterstrike….The president came face to face with the unpredictability of potentially destabilizing another Middle Eastern country and the limitations of even the vast American military machine, several [current and former U.S. officials] said….Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and other Arab allies united to urge Trump to maintain his diplomatic options with Iran, said the senior Arab diplomat and gulf official.“The message to Washington is to avoid military action,” the gulf official said. “Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Egypt were on the same page in the sense that there will be consequences for the wider region in terms of security and the economy as well, which will ultimately impact the U.S.”Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin ...