In a sign that the Real Donald Trump may be returning, the President of the United States has unveiled a plan to build a missile defence system, or Golden Dome, which he expects to be ready for commissioning by the close of his term in the White House, or a little under four years from now. Once sworn in on January 20, Trump overall presented a stellar national security team, of which an indiscretion caused the removal of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz within a short time of getting such a coveted assignment. The transformation from being just another citizen to getting transformed by a wave of the Presidential wand into VIP status through his new assignment may prove somewhat heady for some.
As a consequence, habits developed during the years before they assumed VIP status may linger on, when many need to be flung into the wastebasket immediately after being nominated. Among these is a hugely increased need for security and secrecy, in contrast to the freewheeling, freetalking days during the past avatar. Waltz apparently could not or did not make needed changes, with the result that a Zero Tolerance White House turfed him out of that stately workplace. Fortunately for the US and its partners and allies around the world, the other selections did make such needed changes, and hence retain their present positions. They remain an outstanding group, one which is sure to welcome what may be informally called the Trump Dome. The system needs over time to cover not just the continental US but its allies and partners as well, including the Quad members in the Indo-Pacific,, and as many as feasible of other such countries.
Many of the countries of Europe, as well as the GCC, need to be helped not financially but technically to have their own Golden Domes. As the White House, including Vice-President J.D. Vance, realises, Cold War 2.0 involving principally the US and China is unlike Cold War 1.0 that involved the US and the USSR. During Cold War 1.0, which continued from the 1948 Berlin Blockade by the Soviet Union to the close of 1991, when the Soviet Union imploded, there was never a direct kinetic conflict between the two superpowers of the time, US and the Soviet Union. In contrast, the odds of a kinetic conflict involving China and the US, the major protagonists of Cold War 2.0, are rising. The CCP leadership has created unacceptable flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific, and may within years cross a Red Line and hence a kinetic showdown with the US. Given that, an extended Golden Dome makes perfect sense.
Extended because Washington will need the help of friendly powers to ensure a comprehensive victory on the battlefield over China. Some of such a project may require US funding, such as over countries needed for US-led defence of the Indo-Pacific, but several countries, such as those in Europe, Japan, South Korea or the GCC would have the financial capability to build the Golden Dome, some with technical help from the US, others on their own. Such an extended Golden Dome needs to be able to deflect Chinese and other missile strikes, in the way the Iron Dome does for Israel. Quiet technical help will need to be given to Taiwan to as silently as possible develop its own Golden Dome system, for it is a country which has the highest risk of a Chinese effort at occupation. In a different manner, what the Marshall Plan succeeded in doing for Europe, the Trump Plan of a Golden Globe system would do for the beneficiary countries. The sooner it gets completed, the better. In the way the Marshall Plan for economic stability has remained unforgotten in Europe, the Trump Plan for a missile defence shield will remain unforgotten by the whole world.
MDN
