“I Have an Open Mind to It” : American Climate Diplomacy as a Reflection of the President’s Perceptions, from George W. Bush to Donald Trump
The United States’ climate diplomacy has historically oscillated between phases of leadership and disengagement, reflecting the changeovers between Democratic and Republican administrations in the White House. Building on cognitive methods in foreign policy analysis, we came up with an analytical frame which furthers this partisan explanation and allows us to better understand the reasons underlying the climate diplomacy of the George W. Bush (2001-2009), Barack Obama (2009-2017) and Donald Trump (2017-2021) administrations. We show that the main climate diplomacy actions of those administrations reflect those Presidents’ perceptions regarding the climate threat, the importance of multilateralism, and the Sino-American relationship. We also argue that the Trump administration’s climate diplomacy actions may have long-lasting consequences that are detrimental to the global fight against climate change, and we show how the Biden administration has tried so far to reorientate American climate diplomacy toward a greater engagement.