Principled realism and populist sovereignty in Trump’s foreign policy

Ettinger, Aaron

doi:10.1080/09557571.2019.1659229

Cited by 18 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Interestingly, these were several of the ideas by which many analysts characterised Trump's foreign policy doctrine, also described as "chaotic" (Jervis et al 2018), "incoherent" (Deyermond 2023), "imprudent", and "incompetent" (Drezner 2020). The inquiry into the existence of a Trump doctrine or a coherent conceptual framework guiding Trump's foreign policy has been a subject of debate (Friedman and Zenko 2017;Ettinger 2020;Bentley and David 2021).…”

Section: A Chaotic and Nationalist Foreign Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamics of Change in United States Foreign Policy: Contexts, Leadership, and Hegemonic Legitimacy

Mendes

2023

Social Sciences

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This article examines the dialectical relationship between continuity and change in the foreign policy of the United States, a hegemonic power. The article begins by exploring the agent–structure problem and the factors that affect changes in foreign policy and the legitimacy of hegemony. It compares the hegemonic leadership styles of three former United States Presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. The article aims to contrast the foreign policy approaches of the three presidents and present two main arguments. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of foreign policy, it is imperative to analyse dynamic components such as contextual factors and leadership. This includes the leaders’ worldviews and their ability to adapt to unanticipated crises. The gradual decline of the United States’ hegemony in the international order can be attributed to structural transformations within the international order and the erosion of its social capital and its role as hegemon. Yet, the leadership styles adopted by American presidents have a significant impact on the erosion of the nation’s hegemonic leadership.

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Section: A Chaotic and Nationalist Foreign Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dynamics of Change in United States Foreign Policy: Contexts, Leadership, and Hegemonic Legitimacy

Mendes

2023

Social Sciences

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“…The Trump Administration envisioned its foreign policy as guided by "principled realism" (The White House, 2017). While criticized by some as an "empty slogan" that would be better understood as "populist sovereignty" (Ettinger, 2020) or even "vulgar realism" (Singh, 2021), Michael Anton have argued that Trump's "America First" foreign policy doctrine essentially boiled down to unabashed self-interest: "Putting our interests first will make us all safer and more prosperous. If there is a Trump Doctrine, that's it" (Anton, 2019).…”

Section: The Biden Doctrinementioning

confidence: 99%

The Biden Doctrine and China's response

Kim

2022

International Area Studies Review

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The purpose of this paper is to explain how China is reacting to U.S. foreign policy under President Biden (“The Biden Doctrine”). Using official statements and documents, this paper establishes that “authoritarianism versus democracy” has become the organizing principle of the Biden Doctrine, and that principle is supported by three “pillars”—alliances, multilateralism, and strategic risk reduction. The Biden Doctrine is focused on strengthening alliances and building multilateral partnerships that can provide a competitive edge against China, while also pursuing strategic risk reduction measures to contain competition to non-military areas, even as the United States steps up support for Taiwan. The Biden Doctrine has not been well-received in China, where it is viewed as an attempt at containment, and China has responded with stronger diplomatic rhetoric, increased military activity around Taiwan, strengthened partnerships with U.S. adversaries, and (albeit strained) efforts to maintain good relations with Europe. The paper concludes that the interplay between U.S. and Chinese foreign policies is increasing the risk of a new type of Cold War, especially over geographical flashpoints like Taiwan.

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“…As Brands acknowledges, the central organizing principle of Trump's statecraft has been the idea that America is systematically exploited as a result of the arrangements it has constructed-free trade pacts, alliances, international organizations-and that the country will only become prosperous and powerful again if it accepts that global affairs are fundamentally a zero-sum game (Brands, 2018, p. 144) Although the concept of realism is usually related to security considerations, Trump's realism was more present in his approach to international institutions and agreements, especially regarding trade. Even in the international security realm, his dealings with allies had an economic bias, which is clear in Trump's approach to the NATO, where the priority was to make European countries "pay their fair share" (Ettinger, 2019). Also, many of Trump's alliances in the international system were not guided by "national interests" but rather by ideological and cultural affinity, as Trump himself acknowledged multiple times (Chryssogelos, 2021).…”

Section: The National Security Strategy Issued By the Trump Administr...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Lacatus, Trump's populist approach to foreign policy is not new to American politics, as it incorporates features of the Jacksonian populism, such as anti-elitism, a belief in American exceptionalism, strong nationalist ideas, and skepticism about the American ability to create and sustain a liberal order (Lacatus, 2021). This Jacksonian approach, which is also highlighted by Ettinger (2019) and Holland and Fermor (2021), was created through Trump's populist discourse and is structured around the belief that the "government should do everything in its power to promote the well-beingpolitical, moral, economic -of the folk community" (Mead, 1999(Mead, /2000. As such, Trump's Jacksonian populism served an important purpose on his administration's foreign policy, as he was able to build a collective identity for America that was opposed to the "corrupt globalist establishment" and an array of other foreign actors (Wojczewski, 2019), having practical implications on Trump's foreign policy towards multilateralism, migration, security, and trade (Jenne, 2021).…”

Section: Populism As a Foreign Policy Strategy?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Donald Trumps inconsistent foreign policy through psychological assessments: the case of North Korea

Boas

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This thesis is dedicated to an analysis of the Trump administration's foreign policy, which is widely understood as inconsistent and incoherent. In order to understand these characteristics, I hypothesize that the Trump administration's foreign policy was inconsistent and incoherent because it was deeply influenced by the president's personality. To build this analysis, I first outline the absence of a Trump Grand Strategy or a Trump Doctrine, or any type of guiding principle that could comprehensively explain the Trump administration's foreign policy. Out of the few distinguishable patterns in Trump's international behavior, this thesis explores his populist approach and his centralization of decision-making processes, strengthening the argument that Trump's personal traits might have played an important role in his foreign policy. To test the outlined hypothesis, I draw on Leadership Trait Analysis' assumptions and methods, assessing Trump's personality through at-a-distance content analysis. Drawing on the literature on leadership styles, I draw hypotheses about Trump's foreign policy decisionmaking behavior from his personal traits and compare these with his actual behavior regarding North Korea, which was the selected case for analysis. Results show that the hypotheses drawn from Trump's personality are consistent with his actual foreign policy behavior in U.S diplomacy towards North Korea, which allows us to understand Trump's personal characteristics as causal mechanisms in his decision-making process in this case. In that sense, the inconsistency and incoherence of his foreign policy could be understood as the result of a sum of foreign policy issues that were not strongly defined by ideology or strategy, but were highly influenced by the president's personal characteristics.

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Principled realism and populist sovereignty in Trump’s foreign policy

Cited by 18 publications

References 16 publications

The Dynamics of Change in United States Foreign Policy: Contexts, Leadership, and Hegemonic Legitimacy

The Dynamics of Change in United States Foreign Policy: Contexts, Leadership, and Hegemonic Legitimacy

The Biden Doctrine and China's response

Understanding Donald Trumps inconsistent foreign policy through psychological assessments: the case of North Korea

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