WASHINGTON—President-elect Donald Trump’s calls to take control of Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal reflect his fascination with a 21st-century version of an old idea—that great powers should carve out spheres of influence and defend their economic and security interests by imposing their will on smaller neighbors.
In a press conference Tuesday, Trump outlined a second-term foreign-policy agenda that rests not on global alliances and free trade but on economic coercion and unilateral military might, even against allies.
