Tillerson’s appointment reflects Trump’s view of foreign policy
Dec 14th 2016, 14:24 BY LEXINGTON

Tillersonの任命はTrumpの外向方針の考え方を反映している。



FIRST reactions to the nomination of Rex Tillerson as Donald Trump’s secretary of state have focused on the specifics of the Texan oilman’s record as head of ExxonMobil, from his closeness to the Russian government to his company’s stance on climate change. Defending his decision, President-elect Trump has pointed to a different, more general side of Mr Tillerson’s record: namely, that he has the brains and negotiating smarts needed to rise to the top of a large and complex multinational corporation. Mr Trump’s pitch is straightforward: he is building a government of world-class deal-makers, who will strike bargains and make America a winner again in tough-minded transactions with foreign friends, rivals and foes. 

specifics：詳細
Defending：弁護する
pitch：投球
strike bargains ：取引をする

Mr Trump may well have a point. Some of the criticism of Mr Tillerson seems to misunderstand the role of a corporate chief executive, and to assume that every business leader is the personal incarnation of the company that he leads. As CEO Mr Tillerson is answerable to his shareholders and has a duty to put their interests and those of his firm first. If confirmed as America’s top diplomat, he will be representing Mr Trump and his government. It is surely unfair to assume, without evidence, that Mr Tillerson would inevitably be a shill for the oil industry, or reach his conclusions about, say, sanctions on Russia based on what profits his former firm. After all, Colin Powell spent most of his career as an army officer, ending up as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But few predicted that he would put the interests of America’s armed forces first when he was appointed to run the State Department by George W. Bush. 

incarnation：具体化
answerable：責任が問われる
confirmed：承認する
inevitably：必然的に
shill：さくらになる

Lexington wonders, however, if Mr Trump is himself missing the point by stressing how transactional America’s foreign relations will be on his watch. That certainly fits with the property tycoon’s image and personality. He is a man proud of his ruthlessness, and his willingness to twist arms, extract concessions and drive the hardest of bargains. Even before his inauguration on January 20th the president-elect has shown a willingness to treat geopolitics like a trip to buy a rug in a bazaar. Only a few days ago he told a TV interviewer that he might be willing to abandon the One China policy—diplomatic code for the decades-old policy of refusing to acknowledge Taiwan as an independent sovereign state—unless he secures better trade terms from the mainland Chinese government in Beijing. That is essentially treating Taiwan, a dynamic, noisily democratic, pro-American island that is home to 25m people, as no more than a bargaining chip. 

fits with：にふさわしい
ruthlessness：情け容赦のない
twist arms：説得させる
bargaining chip：交渉の切り札

Keep that up, and your columnist wonders if the American people will forever applaud that sort of deal-making foreign policy. Mr Trump is betting that he will be wildly popular if his brow-beating and table-thumping ways bring jobs home to America, or make allies cough up more of the costs of hosting American military bases. Political scientists call that “output legitimacy”, jargon for a government which earns public support and loyalty by showing that it can get results. (The opposite is input legitimacy, in which governments claim support because they have a fresh electoral mandate.) 

brow-beating：おどす
table-thumping：テーブルを叩く
cough：しぶしぶ金を払う

But what if a global bully-boy approach makes foreign hackles rise, and trashes Brand America? Your correspondent is writing this aboard the military version of a Boeing 747 that carries America’s defence secretary around, on the last leg of a two-week, 25,000-mile round-the-world farewell tour. Though these are the very last days of the Obama administration, at every stop the reception accorded the outgoing defence secretary, Ashton Carter in Asia, the Middle East and Europe reflects years of American commitment to upholding global rules and some inchoate idea of freedom. From Japanese government ministers to the Afghan president or an Israeli general, every speaker thanked America for a certain selflessness in the way that it handles being the strongest country on earth. 

hackles：いきり立たせる
trashes：を壊す
inchoate：未完成の
selflessness：無私無欲

It is true that the slogan America First thrilled enough voters to get Donald Trump elected. It is also true that Republican supporters of Mr Trump like to compare him to Ronald Reagan, gleefully predicting that he will use his rhetorical skills to sell a hard-edged conservative agenda to the public. But one of the reasons that Reagan was so loved by his countrymen was that he made them feel proud to be Americans. He was a master story-teller who delighted in recounting tales of American heroism and selfless virtue. Are Americans ready to stop being the shining city on the hill and become a transactional, self-first country in all circumstances? This blogger has a hunch they are not. 

thrilled：ワクワクする
gleefully：大喜びの
rhetorical：大げさな
transactional：経済活動の
self-first：自分のことを最優先に考える
hunch：でないという気がする

TrumpがTillersonを国務長官に指名したが、彼がExxonMobilのトップだったからと言って、石油のことを優先することはないだろう。そんなことよりも、今後の課題はトランプ自身の外交政策にある。例えば台湾の独立を彼は外交カードとして考えている。これは彼のビジネスマンとしての背景からだ。彼の不動産での経営を彼の外交政策に持ち出して、かなり強引なやり方で進めていくことになるだろう。そうすればそうした交渉に反発する国がでてくることになる。

ともかく、世界がどう反応するかわからない。彼自身も経営者だから、強引な駆け引きと懐柔策を双方心得ているはずだ。政治家としての経験がないが、彼の今までの慣習にとらわれない行動が注目されるだろう。今までの保守的な政治家は嫌われることになる。果たして日本はどうだろうか。答えはどうも明らかなようだ。

水曜日。　昨日は研修資料の準備をした。今日は海野塾がある。テーマはComfort Womanだ。今週は力がはいった。ではまた明日。