Underwood: Trump's world view not good for Guam

Robert Underwood | For Pacific Daily News

Show Caption Hide Caption Calvo: Trump down to earth, kind of guy you want to hang out with in bar Gov. Eddie Calvo said President Trump "probably doesn't drink," and is a down to earth guy you want to "hang around in a bar, ... shoot the breeze."

We live in a different world because of Donald Trump. For those comfortable in a world order led by American coalitions of global interests protected by interlocking international arrangements and deployment of military forces, that world is being dismantled block by block. For those Americans comforted by the twin goals of free trade and the advancement of human rights, the Trump world order seems narrow, nationalistic and self-centered. It seems reflective of the self-aggrandizing personality of the Donald.

It is tempting to say that America First or Make America Great Again is a personality-driven effort fed by an atavistic world view. Racial fears and grievances of the past 75 years of a liberal world order are unleashed in a torrent of anti-immigrant speech and sarcastic attacks on political correctness. While some of this is glibly dismissed as selfish rants legitimized by a misogynist brute who swaggered his way to the presidency, it would be naive to believe this doesn't represent a new view of the world.

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Trump means what he says and offers a direct challenge to the world order that emerged out of World War II. That world is based on a plan to contain communism, protect fledgling democracies and support trade relationships which engender prosperity. This world order was protected by alliances and the strategic placement of military forces.

That world doesn’t mean much to Trump. He doesn’t see a world motivated by joint interests and common action in favor of more democracy and greater prosperity.

He sees a world made up of individual nations constantly assessing their relationship to each other. America’s alliance with Canada isn't governed by a common history, but by the nature of current trade relationships. America’s relationship to North Korea isn't affected by our disgust for Kim Jung Un’s prison camps and starvation of his people; we are only concerned about their potential military threat.

This disruptive view of the world is as unpredictable as Trump himself. In this constant assessment of America’s relationships with other countries, unpredictability is a virtue and disruption is a tactic freely applied. This also creates havoc for us on Guam. We are the tip of the spear for the Asia-Pacific part of the post-World War II liberal world order.

When that world order goes, we will become dispensable. Our value as a people, as an island, for the past 75 years is almost entirely based on this containment network. Guam’s democratic ethos and citizenship is meaningful only in that context. In Trump’s nation-centered view of the world, Guam’s role is defined entirely by its utility. When that changes, our protestations about suffering for America in World War II or claims to democratic brotherhood are irrelevant.

In the Trump world view, the status of entities like California, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are easily trivialized. Imagine what can happen to Guam.

In the new world order, Guam won't be the tip of the spear. It will be an isolated American base not much more than a pit stop where nobody lives. When that no longer proves useful, we can be bargained away or trivialized into meaninglessness.

For advocates of independence, liberation may be at hand. For advocates of statehood or closer ties, pay really close attention. We are just a disposable piece of unincorporated territory.

Robert Underwood is president of the University of Guam and Guam’s former delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives.