Letter from the Editor

Dear reader, The first 100 days of a Trump administration began with a flurry of executive orders including a travel ban on countries with terrorism connections, and reversing financial regulatory legislation of Dodd-Frank. The polarized atmosphere of pre-election under Obama now continues under Trump. On key issues of NATO and the Korean peninsula the Republican party asserted itself. Vice president Pence meets with German foreign minister Gabriel to support NATO and unity with Europe. U.S.Defense Secretary Gen. Jim Mattis meets Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe to assert U.S. support for Japan and South Korea. The media attention has focussed on the travel ban, but the key issues such as the Atlantic alliance and security in East Asia are no less important. On these issues the Republican position remains firm. Even on Iran new sanctions have followed missile tests -but the agreement with Iran is still in place for lack of better alternatives. Changes in Germany with the resurgence of socialist SPD party under Martin Schulz is a positive development -as this gives voters dissatisfied with refugee policy a chance to stay with the major parties. It bodes well for stability in Germany to have a Schulz -Merkel contest for chancellor. Brexit also does not look as attractive an option as British prime minister Theresa May made it sound last year. The courts have ruled parliament has to approve, and the negotiations with the EU much more difficult with prevailing German opinion. For the U.S. economy also the shift to putting U.S. interests first, is not that much different from president Jinping saying all the right things about globalization and trade, yet at the same time pursuing China's best interests, as Greg Ip points out in the WSJ. A shift in the pendulum from a neutral position for decades to a pro- American position, could have been expected as a normal pattern of change after the job losses and hollowing out of manufacturing in the U.S.of recent times. In the long run a situation can be created that fairly accomodates American interests and interests of American workers, that creates then a more stable environment for world trade compared to one that does not. This one issue created the opening in the midwest for a Trump administration. Anyone who has seen first hand at any time in recent decades how American workers in midwestern states succumbed to pressures of plant shifting overseas and layoffs, can understand why there is something to be said in favor of restoring a fair balance and shifting policy. It is also the responsibility of Republican policy planners to do this within a larger committment to trade -in the way president Jinping does. A recent article in ZEIT online describes the basic unease in the U.S. about identity as a nation, about borders and about decent jobs and decent wages. It says Democrats should pay careful attention. It is not unusual for the pendulum to swing too far in one direction and the country taking a pause to reflect where it has come. It is the responsibility of Republicans to make this pause a period that is constructive in more and more ways, in the best interests of all Americans, true to the country's great traditions and leaders from the past.