Perhaps the biggest failing of U.S. foreign policy across time is ethnocentrism, or perhaps a cultural ego centrism. The U.S. consistently sees the world through its own frame and for its own interests (regardless what is shared with the public to garner support for its actions). Murray Polner’s examination of relations between the U.S. and China and Japan  is instructive given the multiple forces at play in that neighborhood at this time. There is a certain irony that we now have in office a man who essentially thinks he is his own world, much as the United States has looked at the world. For many it seems reflective of an illness that could take us all down. Perhaps this is a teachable moment.