 U.S. Foreign Policy at a Crossroads ?
The impact of Donald Trump’s personality and leadership style on u.s. foreign policy was the subject of much speculation upon his arrival at the White House. Will this inexperienced president’s unorthodox methods irrevocably transform foreign policy ? Are the institutional and structural constraints of the American society and the international system would hinder the announced revolution ? After four years of a tumultuous presidency, we find that Donald Trump has put in place a histrionic foreign policy that acted on three levels, as a magnifying mirror of the ambiguities, hesitations, and errors of American foreign policy since September 11, 2001. First, a break in tone but a substantive continuity that sent contradictory messages, both within the national security apparatus and in the world, undermining the credibility of the United States ; second, a double crisis – of American identity and of the world order – that impeded compromises ; third, a management of decline focused on both economic competition and political and military disengagement that contributed to international instability and the weakening of American leadership. In this issue, authors analyze these elements of Trump’s foreign policy through the prism of various regional and transnational issues.