The Magnificent Seven: Trump’s Top 7 foreign policy advisers

Donald Trump has proven to be a favorite presidential candidate among Republicans. For quite some time, however, no one attached much importance to the foreign policy program of the eccentric billionaire. But now that he has more of a chance of occupying the White House, the issue has become a pressing one. Earlier, Katehon analyzed certain features of Trump’s foreign policy thinking and concluded that the candidate has more realistic views and firmly opposes the supporters of the US’ expansionist tendencies. Trump’s “Great America” means a United States that is a great world power, or one of the world’s great powers, but not a hegemonic pole. As is known, however, followers make leaders. This time, let’s take a look at those involved in the development of this presidential candidate’s foreign policy conceptions.

1. Senator Jeff Sessions

On March 1st, Trump named Alabama senator Jeff Sessions his primary advisor in the field of national security and as chairman of the advisory committee on national security. Previously, he was expected to promote Republican senator Ted Cruz. Like Cruz, Sessions is a conservative Evangelical Protestant. However, like Trump, he opposes Muslim immigration to the United States and generally adheres to the most stringent views on immigration. Sessions is a member of the Senate Committee on the Armed Forces and is known as one of the Republican hawks.

At the same time, however, Sessions is firmly opposed to the neocons and their policy of spreading democracy and overthrowing regimes in the Middle East. According to him, this interventionist strategy harms the United States rather than suits its interests. In one news briefing, Sessions stated that it is time for a healthy dose of foreign policy realism.

Sessions is quoted as saying: ”In the Middle East, this means forming partnerships based on shared interests, not merely overthrowing regimes in the dangerous attempt to plant democracies." He also added: ”A national-interest foreign policy, combined with a military second to none, stands in contrast to interventionist ideas that could enmesh us further in the region's chaos.”

At the same time, however, Sessions cannot be suspected of having a positive attitude towards Russia. After the reunification of the Crimea with Russia in 2014, he called for the adoption of harsh anti-Russian sanctions, urging the United States to make Russia "feel pain" over what he described as a pattern of aggressiveness by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and elsewhere. On the other hand, the senator simultaneously opposed military conflict with Russia and, after joining Trump’s team, he even called for a dialogue with Russians. A very curious change can be noted in his tone:

"I think his {Trump’s] emphasis on a more realistic, pragmatic foreign policy is good. I think an argument can be made there is no reason for the U.S. and Russia to be at this loggerheads. Somehow, someway we ought to be able to break that logjam. Strategically it's not justified for either country. It may not work. Putin may not be able to be dealt with, but I do not condemn his instincts that we ought to attempt to do that".

In addition, Sessions is an ardent Atlanticist who believes that European countries should unite around the United States in opposing the strengthening of Russia and China. He opposes the participation of European countries in Chinese projects such as the Asian Development Bank’s infrastructural investments. 

On the matters of relations with Israel and positions on Iran, this advisor to Trump does not differ from the Republican establishment as a whole. He opposes the "nuclear deal" with Tehran, which he said could have a negative impact on the security of Israel.

On March 21st, Trump revealed some of the other names of his advisors in the spheres of security and international relations at a meeting with the editorial board of the Washington Post, when, quite significantly, questioned the need for the existence of NATO and called for a non-interventionist foreign policy. These named advisors are Walid Phares, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Joe Schmitz, General Keith Kellogg.

2. Walid Phares 

Walid Phares is an American scholar of Lebanese Maronite Christian origins. He is a professor at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. and has strong ties with Maronite pro-Israel extremists in Lebanon. He is the closest to the neoconservatives of all on Trump’s team.

Phares is an adviser to the House of Representatives. In addition, he is a counterterrorism expert and specialist in Middle East foreign policy, being the author of the book The Iranian Global Threat, for which he is often accused of spreading anti-Islamic propaganda. Phares was also appointed as a foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney for his 2012 presidential campaign.

In 2010, Phares predicted the onset of the Arab Spring and in 2014 he published the book The Lost Spring: U.S. Policy in the Middle East and Catastrophes to Avoid, which promotes a tougher stance towards Islamists, more American military action, and blames the Obama administration for the unsavory negotiations with the "Muslim Brotherhood". As this expert adheres to such pro-Israel and anti-Iranian views, he stands against the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria. This can be felt in his descriptions of the conflict in Syria:

“As Tadmur was retaken by the Alawi-Assad forces and the Shia Iranian backers, the Sunni areas of Syria are being surrounded and held under extremist Shia forces. ISIS is retreating from desert outposts, and that is a setback but Sunni moderates are no gaining..”

3. Carter Page

Carter Page is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who currently works as an expert on energy production and economic development, particularly in the former Soviet region of Eastern Europe. He is a young (graduated in 2009) but very experienced expert who was also an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he co-directed a study group on the Caspian Sea region. Page advised the Russian-state-owned energy company Gazprom on its acquisition of "the largest oil and gas export project in the world". He lived in Moscow for three years before returning to New York.

In 2014, Page said that the current conflict with Russia is the result of NATO’s actions, which provoked Russia to expand:

“While interventionist policies of the Soviet Union might have stood as the pivotal threat in Europe when Thatcher was rising to power as she argued at the time, similar aggressive policies of pushing NATO right to Russia's doorstep have instigated today's predicament.”

In his article “New Slaves, Global Edition: Russia, Iran and the Segregation of the World Economy”, Paige accuses the United States of creating conditions in the global economic system which could be called slavery, and he accuses the Obama administration of organizing the coup d’etat in Ukraine which ended in a bloody civil war.

In addition, Page supports US participation in international climate talks despite common Republican opposition to such regulations. He also supports the US-Iranian deal, as when he wrote: “The potential for future U.S.-Iranian energy ventures is substantial if moves forward in current diplomatic negotiations are indeed achieved.”

4. George Papadopoulos

George Papadopoulos is an oil and energy consultant and head of an international energy center in London. He previously advised the campaign of Dr. Ben Carson before joining Trump's team and is also a research fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute think-tank. All of his activities in the energy sector basically focus on the joint Greek-Cypriot-Israeli project of gas production in the Eastern Mediterranean. He is an ardent proponent of the deal.

Papadopoulos opposed the inclusion of Turkey in this project and has been lobbying for a fleet of US warships to be accommodated by Crete and for Cyprus’s accession to NATO.

5. Joe Schmitz

Joe Schmitz was the inspector general at the Department of Defense during the George W. Bush administration. His opponents refer to him as a "radical Christian supremacist". In 2005, Schmitz took a position with the Prince Group, a holding company for Blackwater Worldwide. He is at odds with Obama administration which has accused him of covering up violations of the law under George W. Bush.

6. General Keith Kellogg 

General Keith Kellogg is a former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and was chief operating officer for “Coalition Provisional Authority” which temporarily governed Iraq following the 2003 invasion. Today, he is executive vice-president of Virginia-based CACI International, a private intelligence and information technology consulting firm. The company was at the center of controversy in 2004 when its members were accused of participating in torturing and abusing prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

7. General Michael Flynn

General Michael Flynn was the earliest reported one of Trump’s main foreign policy advisors. At one point he was a director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and then he became an outspoken proponent of closer, friendlier ties with Russia. Last December, Flynn was seen sitting next to Russian president Putin at a dinner celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Kremlin-linked television network RT.

Trump's team of advisors is quite heterogeneous. Among them, there are people who hold diametrically opposed views on US foreign policy. Some like Walid Phares are close in spirit to the neoconservatives, while others such as Carter Page and General Michael Flynn are more inclined towards partnership with the new centers of global power, particularly Russia. Two of the others are more notable for their relations with private military and intelligence corporations. From an outward glance, Trump’s team appears to be a bizarre mix of military functionaries of the George Bush Jr. administration, Israel lobbyists, Republican hawks, and even supporters of a more multipolar model of international relations.

It is a noteworthy fact that all of Trump’s known advisors are associated with certain elite circles of the Republican establishment, lobbying PMC’s, CFR, and the heads of the military. It is clear in all of this that Trump is attempting to strike a balance between his own rather radical views on foreign policy (note the fact that he is more anti-establishment than most of his own foreign policy advisors) and the prevailing consensus in the Republican establishment, without the support of even a part of which he will not be able to be the official Republican Party candidate for president. If he could become the party’s candidate, then he could become president, and he would have to grant even further concessions to the establishment, whose representatives will shape a major part of his foreign policy agenda. Thus, major changes in US foreign policy should not be expected, even under President Trump.