USA is pulling back from rest of the world

Donald Trump’s rhetoric may be idiosyncratic but he has made the idea of an isolationist America a popular subject for discussion among the Washington mainstream, says Peter Apps

FOR many Americans, the attacks on Brussels must have felt like more of the same. Once again, militants struck, the systems designed to stop them failed and all the blood and treasure of 15 years of “war on terror” appears more wasted than ever.

From an outsider’s perspective, though, the way in which the United States reacts appears to be subtly shifting. Almost without noticing, America is beginning to dramatically rethink the way in which it interacts with the world.