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Former Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman criticized what she called a “transactional” approach to foreign policy under the Trump administration at a Harvard Institute of Politics forum Tuesday evening, warning that the world’s authoritarian leaders had been emboldened by the White House.
Sherman, who worked as a diplomat under three presidential administrations and served as the State Department’s second-in-command in the Biden administration from 2021 to 2023, said the Trump administration had not yet reckoned with the multipolar dynamics between world powers.
“The approach is really to go at it alone in a transactional way, country by country, problem by problem, whether that’s on tariffs, country by country, or whether it’s on what we demand in terms of defense, how we want to deal with countries.”
The Trump administration was fiercely criticized by allies and economists for imposing sweeping tariffs from 10 to 50 percent on dozens of countries in early April. The U.S. stock market experienced its worst week since March 2020 before Trump reversed course and paused most of the new tariffs.
The White House kept a 145 percent tariff on imported goods from China, the country’s biggest trade partner.
The Tuesday discussion was moderated by Harvard Kennedy School professor Roya Talibova, and covered recent flashpoints in the administration’s relationship with China and Iran. Sherman said relations with China will define modern foreign policy, and called the country a “pacing challenge” for the U.S.
“In my view, to give them away or to push them aside is to our detriment,” she said, praising the Biden administration as a “bedrock” for strong partnerships.
Sherman, who was part of the U.S. team that negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, said international diplomacy has become more complex in the last decade, arguing U.S. officials would need to pick their battles to make progress.
“I wouldn’t try to be the one negotiating with Russia, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Palestine all at the same time,” she said. “You need nuclear physicists and financial sanctions people and lawyers and public diplomacy people and interpreters and lots of other things.”
She said that Russia, once a reliable negotiating partner on issues like Syria’s chemical weapons, had fundamentally changed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “Those days are over,” Sherman said. “Those days became over when Putin decided to horrifically and illegally invade a sovereign country.”
Trump had touted a possible deal between Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Pope Francis’ funeral in Vatican City, but Russia rejected Ukraine’s latest ceasefire proposal days later.
But in addressing the administration’s attempt to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine, Sherman expressed optimism and said changes within neighboring countries created new avenues for a resolution.
“Hamas is weaker. Hezbollah is weaker. The Iranian militia are weaker. In Syria, Assad is gone. The complexity has changed,” Sherman said. “So why not try to create change as well?”
Both Biden and Trump attempted to negotiate a resolution between Israel and Hamas, though talks have repeatedly broken down and Israel has continued airstrikes into Gaza. Sherman said U.S. ties to Saudi Arabia aid negotiations.
“Saudi Arabia now has diplomatic relations with Iran. The US wants to deal with Saudi Arabia that ultimately might lead to the recognition of Israel and change the dynamics. The president has said he wants to end the conflict in the Middle East.”
She said that negotiations between the two parties appeared to have “stalled at the moment in terms of seeing any end to that horrifying situation.”
“I find the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza nearly unbearable,” Sherman said.
