The Pointman, as always, on point and well worth the time to read.  Here's a couple of snippets, but there's a lot more:

The lost ground conceded by the toe-curlingly bad presidency of Barack Obama has largely been recovered by Trump, who unlike Obama when he turns up at foreign summits, is there to kick ass and take names, and to tack on that old punch line as a finisher – he’s fresh out of paper. Obama spent all his time at those international occasions apologising for America’s very existence, and it didn’t go down well at home or in a few places abroad. For instance, such needless grovelling to globalism and various third world and third-rate dictators didn’t exactly engender confidence in places like the old Soviet vassal states who depended on a strong America to protect them from the Russian bear pawing at their borders

His foreign policy outside Europe carries a simple message. America is back and prepared to use its economic and military muscle to claw back the ground and influence lost by the dithering, corrupt and essentially weak Obama administration. While that may sound a bit harsh, the good news is that Trump likes to make deals that are acceptable to all parties concerned, while at the same time, he won’t let America be taken advantage of. Obviously, while there will inevitably be some future alarms and excursion in foreign policy matters, for the moment he’s largely got it settled to his satisfaction.

Some geopolitical thoughts on what to watch for in 2019