Vance’s Foreign-Policy Lesson: Allies, Independence, and Oil Prices

Slate’s Fred Kaplan argues that the Trump era is teaching a hard foreign‑policy lesson: allies and independent‑minded officers matter. He notes an incident where Vice President J.D. Vance reportedly urged Zelensky to curb drone strikes on Black Sea oil shipments to avoid spiking global gasoline prices, a concession Zelensky allegedly granted, illustrating how allied concessions can be demanded to serve shared interests. Kaplan also highlights NATO’s restrained role on Iran, a Pew finding that many nations favor China over the U.S., and the push for more autonomous security arrangements, while warning that internal debates over strategy risk weakening the development of seasoned military leadership.