Instead of grieving for the past, or focusing on whether world leaders laughed at or with<\/a> President Trump at the United Nations, grassroots progressives should be searching for a new deal with the world.<\/p>\n During his visit to the UN in September 2108, the President\u2019s stated vision and priorities for multilateral action got little discussion. While the majority of world leaders used their time at the UN dais to speak of \u201ccommon threats\u201d and \u201cuniversal values,\u201d President Trump, for a second year in a row, expounded on the urgency of patriotism<\/a>, rejecting the multilateral process, the vaulted \u201cideology of globalism.\u201d This approach is hardly surprising from a leader who campaigned on the promise of \u201cAmerica First.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years into the Trump presidency, we are quick to dismiss the President\u2019s rhetoric as mere theatrics. Yet, his vision of the world, greatly influenced by veteran war-hawks around him such as the current National Security Advisor John Bolton, currently set the tone of U.S. foreign policy. They shape America\u2019s relations with its neighbors and overseas nations alike, and in turn the safety, well-being and prosperity of Americans at home.<\/p>\n Few question the current state of affairs on the foreign policy front. Many have accepted it as a part of the ongoing reality show that the American political process has become. Others grieve for the past administration<\/a> which, in its dealings with foreign nations and multilateral institutions, typically called on America\u2019s better angels. We would be better off searching for new ideas about alternative means of American engagement with the world — a sort of New Deal with the world.<\/p>\n Historians are quick to point out that the popular consensus on U.S. foreign policy has undergone little change following the fall of the Berlin Wall, regardless of the party in power. Rather, leaders have mainly prioritized policies with a singularly pro- war, surveillance, and exploitative business focus.<\/p>\n The progressive wing, the mainstream-kind, has rarely dared to challenge the status-quo. Often, they are busy with advocacy on domestic issues. There are also no ongoing robust discussions<\/a> in the D.C. think-tank circles about alternative U.S. foreign policy practices. The funders for such projects are scarce. According to some reports, there are not even enough policy experts<\/a> to staff administrations that deviate from the mainstream foreign policy consensus. The American foreign policy elite follows a cookie-cutter approach, namely because most of them came of age in the same institutions of higher-learning.<\/p>\n However, the blueprints for an alternative foreign policy are slowly emerging. They include proposals that would both honor and\u00a0 advance the ideals of justice upon which the U.S. was founded, and would guarantee the well-being of others and the planet.<\/p>\n These policy proposals are being sketched out<\/a> by scholars and foreign policy experts. They are also championed by a small group of politicians unafraid to take on the establishment. One of these people is long-term Vermont Senator and former Democratic-party nominee candidate Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n