| | | By definition, bullying is a power play and negotiation is collaborative. There's noting collaborative about what Trump is doing, not remotely. Negotiation and power are not mutually exclusive; in fact, any strategic discussion of negotiation must take power dynamics into account.
It is essential to leverage power (what you call "bullying"), and yes, that is a key component of Trump's strategy, always. What Trump did in the last week was to set up a power play that can be used against the biggest challenge, China. China controls the biggest reserves of Rare Earth minerals, to which we sorely need, and Vietnam has what? The second biggest reserves of RE minerals -- and they entered the negotiations with words to the effect, "We're prepared to deal". Not only that, Vietnam doesn't really have what it takes to establish the necessary mining arrangements which will cost billions, particularly to mine this stuff in environmentally sensitive ways. Seems like a great opportunity for the USA and Vietnam to strike a deal: USA puts in the cash, Vietnam puts its in the mineral interests.
China loses, arguably, its greatest strength in the later negotiations.
This didn't "just happen". Everyone knows what's what, but the nuance of the process is what you're throwing away as "bullying". |
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