America and the world need time to work through transition

As the US, its Allies, and the wider world make decisions about the future, it is important that they be taken with time and care, not by ‘Tuesday’, writes Richard N Haass.

IN less than two months, the American political transition will be over. The 45th president of the United States will settle into the Oval Office. President-elect Donald Trump will become President Trump; President Barack Obama will join Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W Bush as a living former president.

Speculation about Trump’s likely foreign and domestic policies is rampant, but little if any of it is meaningful. Campaigning and governing are two very different activities, and there is no reason to assume that how Trump conducted the former will dictate how he approaches the latter. We also do not yet know who all the principal advisers will be and how (and how well) they will work together.