If, as Natalie Nougayrède says, John Bolton opposes “‘globalists’ who want to tie nation states into a web of international norms and agreements that restrict sovereignty”, what hypocrisy (Why Trump and his team want to wipe out the EU, Journal, 18 February). He and his ilk alternatively want to tie nation states, and the EU, into international agreements such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the EU-Canada trade agreement, which destroy national sovereignty by putting secretive corporation v nation state tribunals above national courts and the European court of justice. The motive is hardly secret: the unfettered reign of capitalist greed.
Greg Brooks
Sheffield
• Natalie Nougayrède’s reference to John Bolton’s 2000 writings may not be familiar to today’s readers. He was an architect of the 2000 report from the Project for the New American Century, Rebuilding America’s Defenses. The project’s stated aim was to ensure the continuing pre-eminence of US military power, even to the extent of creating a US space force to control space and cyberspace. That is the interest Bolton still sees as threatened by the EU. He never gives up.
Lawrence Phillips
Emeritus professor of decision sciences, London School of Economics
• Mike Pence appears to have carefully chosen his words of praise for Donald Trump (Pence hails ‘remarkable’, ‘extraordinary’ Trump tenure in attack on US allies, theguardian.com, 16 February). The Oxford English Dictionary defines remarkable as “worthy of attention” and extraordinary as “very unusual”. Pence was remarkably perspicacious. Everyone from Vladimir Putin to Nancy Pelosi could endorse his assessment of Trump’s tenure. And even his boss wouldn’t quibble.
Mike Pender
Cardiff
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