President Trump partakes of a tradition of American exceptionalism and isolationism, but does so in a strikingly undisciplined manner. Prof. Koh argues convincingly that, so far, the President's sputtering attempts to undermine the institutions, regimes and alliances of the post-World War II order have been largely ineffective. International and US domestic law, and their institutions, have proven 'sticky.' They have not been easily displaced or overturned. Here is
cause for a modicum of hope. However, Koh recognizes that President Trump may be less cause than effect, with a widespread anti-globalist nativism spreading in autocracies and illiberal democracies. Globally, law and institutions urgently require strategic reinforcement.
Harold Hongju Koh is Sterling Professor of International Law, former Dean (2004-09) and co-founder of the Rule of Law Clinic at Yale Law School, where he has taught since 1985. He served as Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State from 2009-13; Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor from 1998-2001; and Attorney-Adviser, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice, from 1983-85. He has testified regularly before
Congress and has argued at the U.S. Supreme Court, the International Court of Justice and many other domestic and international courts. He has received seventeen honorary degrees, more than thirty human rights awards, and the Wolfgang Friedmann Prize from Columbia Law School and the Louis B. Sohn Award from the American
Bar Association's International Law Section for his lifetime achievements in international law.