The wheels are already in motion toward the selection of officials for key national security and foreign policy posts in the coming Trump administration, with the president-elect’s transition team being headed by some of his family and major supporters, as well as individuals who held high-level posts during Mr. Trump’s first presidency.

Questions swirl over the extent to which Mr. Trump will pepper his global affairs team with non-interventionists or hawks — or some combination of both. Sources tell Threat Status that behind-the-scenes vetting of potential picks will be headed by Mr. Vance, a staunch critic of U.S. involvement in overseas wars, as well as Mr. Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

At the same time there are reports that Mr. Hook, who served as Iran envoy — he ran the hawkish “maximum pressure” policy toward Tehran — during the first Trump administration, is expected to lead the incoming administration’s transition team at the State Department. On a broader front, the official transition team co-chairs are billionaire businessman Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, former administrator of the Small Business Administration under Mr. Trump and a former sports entertainment executive.

Understanding the full scope of the international fallout from Mr. Trump’s defeat of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will take months and perhaps years, but winners and losers are already apparent.

China could be the biggest loser if the coming Trump administration zeros in on Beijing as America’s top foreign adversary and mounts a multifaceted economic, military and diplomatic offensive against the communist regime. U.S. allies and partners such as Taiwan, Japan, Australia and the Philippines, could stand to gain significantly if Mr. Trump pulls U.S. military resources from Europe or the Middle East and redirects them to the Pacific, or if he strikes concrete military agreements pledging American support in the event of Chinese attacks.

A primary geopolitical question facing the president-elect centers on how to deal with the expanding anti-U.S. alignment of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Former high-level officials who served in national security posts during Mr. Trump’s first term have told Threat Status it is not yet known whether the incoming administration will pursue a “wedge strategy” designed to created friction between Russia and China, or view their alignment with each other, as well as with North Korea and Iran, as a bloc to be confronted as a whole.

European leaders on Thursday made their first collective move since Mr. Trump’s dramatic election victory by calling for a far more considerable emphasis on defense spending. Washington Times Special Correspondent Eric J. Lyman assesses in a dispatch from Rome that many other strategic maneuvers are likely as the former president prepares to return to the White House.

Most European leaders were hesitant to take a strong public stand in the run-up to the U.S. election. Now that Mr. Trump is on his way to a second term, they are reaching out to protect themselves from disruptions. But the most practical reactions came Thursday during a European Union leaders summit in Budapest, which featured calls for more European autonomy on defense.

A common message of the summit appeared to be that Mr. Trump’s “America First” policies meant Europeans must be prepared to do more for themselves. They fear Washington will be unable or unwilling to help economically, diplomatically or militarily as it has for decades.

James Thompson and his fellow soldiers from the 24th Infantry Regiment fought North Korean troops from the Yalu River to the Pusan Perimeter more than 70 years ago but also battled racism and prejudice from their own side as members of what was then one the U.S. Army’s segregated “Buffalo Soldiers” units.

Mr. Thompson, a New Jersey resident, spent more than 20 years in the Army and later had a long career in law enforcement. But, he is most proud of his time in Japan and Korea as a Buffalo Soldier in the early 1950s. Pentagon Correspondent Mike Glenn offers a deep dive, exploring the historic significance of the Buffalo Soldiers ahead of Veterans Day on Monday.

Mr. Thompson, 93, tells The Washington Times in an interview that disrespect his regiment faced decades ago still stings. “We had nobody desert and nobody dropped their weapons and ran,” he said. “We’re the only unit that overran two POW camps. They didn’t write about that because we were colored troops.”

Mr. Thompson will be in Washington on Veterans Day weekend to present the story of the 24th Infantry Regiment in Korea to the 27th annual conference of the American Veterans Center. The group’s mission is to honor the sacrifice of America’s veterans through oral history preservation, educational programs, and civic events.

Mr. Trump’s administration is likely to employ a “maximum pressure” strategy toward Iran, according to Iranian-American researcher and activist Aidin Panahi, who writes that the strategy would involve “enforcing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, financial transactions and military activities” to “cut off Iran’s resources used for military expansion and suppressing domestic dissent.”

The new administration will likely also look for ways to support Iranian opposition groups “to further destabilize the regime,” Mr. Panahi writes. “But there are practical concerns about organizing such uprisings. As the protests in 2019 and 2022 showed, Tehran often stifles dissent by cutting off internet access.”

He goes on to suggest that if Israel or the West could provide internet access inside Iran while engaging in strikes on regime leaders — especially Iranian military commanders — then the regime’s ability to maintain control may be significantly weakened, potentially enabling Iranians to rise up and overthrow the government in Tehran.

• Nov. 7-9 — Twenty-seventh annual Conference & American Valor: A Salute to Our Heroes, American Veterans Center

• Nov. 11 — Veterans Day Ceremony & Wreath Presentation, Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation

• Nov. 12 — What Happened on Nov. 5: A Deep Dive into the Results of the Presidential and Congressional Races, Brookings Institution

• Nov. 12 — America’s Foreign Policy Future: A Post-Election Analysis, Stimson Center

• Nov. 13 — Competing with China on Critical Minerals, Hudson Institute

• Nov. 14 — What to Expect from Trump 2.0 for Korea? Center for Strategic and International Studies

• Nov. 22-24 — Halifax International Security Forum

• Dec. 7 — 2024 Reagan National Defense Forum, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute