WASHINGTON: Foreign and international policy experts have cautioned againstthe approach of the Trump administration to use aid cutoff as a foreignpolicy tool, saying it ignores diplomatic realities and could beunproductive.

President Trump’s administration last week suspended security aid toPakistan, a long-time ally which has provided intelligence and securitycooperation and fighting terrorism in the region and in Afghanistan.

In addition to Pakistan, President Trump has also threatened to cutassistance to Palestinians in a bid to force them to restart negotiationswith Israel. The talks process suffered a setback when President Trump inDecember announced that US would move its embassy to Jerusalem, a move thathas been denounced and voted against in the United Nations.

The Trump administration also threatened those countries with aid cutoffwho voted against the US decision to move its embassy and warned that theadministration would take stock of the situation and that the aid cutoffcould follow.

Many previous US administrations have used US assistance as a tool ofdiplomacy but the foreign policy experts have said that the approach of theTrump administration is different.

“What’s abnormal [about the Trump administration] is the sort of bullyingand overt threats — particularly threats that are often not carriedthrough,” the magazine quoted James Dobbins, a former State Departmentofficial who most recently served as the special representative forAfghanistan and Pakistan under the Obama administration, as saying.

He said that that “threatening aid cutoffs as a way of affecting behavioris usually unproductive, at least in the short term,” and that thelong-term impacts may or may not be more effective.

Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations,warned that such threats to aid run the risk of triggering a nationalistbacklash in foreign countries where people see such efforts as US pressuretactics to dictate their terms.

For Patrick, Trump’s threats symbolizes his view of international relationsand added that his threats looks more like a high-stakes real-estate deal,but ignore diplomatic realities.

“The threat to cut off aid is a little bit reminiscent of high-stakesbargaining or threats in the real estate business, and that works becauseyou can always walk away,,, the problem with diplomacy is that it’s arepeated game. The countries are still there,” he was quoted as saying bythe magazine.