These frenzied fears about the demolition of America’s enduring grand strategic duties have proved overwrought. A bird’s-eye view of President Trump’s foreign policy reveals that he has not retreated from the world and that there is much more continuity with the policies of his predecessors than change.

In the Middle East, Trump increased the number of deployed U.S. troops by more than 30 percent in his first year while loosening the rules of engagement to intensify ongoing bombing campaigns across multiple countries. He doubled down on America’s traditional alliances, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, while reasserting U.S. hostility toward long‐​standing adversaries, like Syria and Iran. The administration’s “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran, which included abrogating the Obama‐​era nuclear deal and imposing unrelenting economic warfare on the country, nearly brought the United States to the brink of another disastrous Middle East war. With help from traditionally hawkish cabinet members like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump’s Iran policy was barely distinguishable from the deepest desires of Bush‐​era neoconservatives bent on regime change.