The Trump administration is dangerously misreading the conflict and its causes.
By JAMES BARNETT
In less than 48 hours, President Donald Trump went from announcing that he would designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” a State Department label that admonishes countries that fail to protect religious freedom, to announcing that he was preparing a military intervention to save Nigerian Christians. Policy swings are not uncharacteristic of this president, but the abrupt embrace of a “responsibility to protect” mindset from someone who has long claimed to oppose military interventions represents a remarkable pivot.
James Barnett is a PhD candidate at University of Oxford and a nonresident fellow at Hudson Institute.