This book investigates the drivers, tactics, and strategy that propel the Trump administration’s foreign policy. The key objective of this book is to look beyond the ‘noise’ of the Trump presidency in order to elucidate and make sense of contemporary US foreign policy. It examines the long-standing convictions of the president and the brutal worldview that he applies to US foreign policy; and his hard-line negotiation tactics and employment of unpredictability to keep America’s major foreign interlocutors off-guard, such as NATO members, China, Mexico, Canada, North Korea, and Iran – each of which are considered here. In strategy terms, the book explains that the president is responding to a new multipolar structure of power by engaging a Kissingerian strategy that eschews liberal values and seeks to adjust great power relations in Washington’s favor. By drawing upon a range of evidence and case studies, this book makes a number of compelling and provocative points to offer a new vector for debate about the workings, successes and failures, and ultimately the long-term implications for the world, of the Trump presidency. This book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy, security studies, and IR in general.

America in the Age of Trump is a bracing, essential look at the failure of a great nation to meet the needs of its people and the challenges of the age—and the resulting collapse of public trust in government, as well as a pervasive crisis of national values, from broken families to a loss of faith in the American idea itself. This crisis of values occurs just as the country faces an unprecedented array of fiscal, economic, social, and national-security challenges: out-of-control federal spending, frighteningly large deficits, massive gaps of income and opportunity, cultural division, and a dangerous world in which American power seems increasingly incidental. In America in the Age of Trump, Douglas E. Schoen and Jessica Tarlov offer a definitive and unique assessment of a nation in turmoil, looking beneath well-known problems to identify underlying yet poorly understood causes. Readers will confront the crises, one by one: of trust, values, and governance; of education, economic opportunity, and fiscal solvency; of national security, domestic tranquility, and race relations. America in the Age of Trump gathers in one place a clear and comprehensive evaluation of the fundamental issues confronting the American future while offering bold, fresh approaches to meeting these challenges. Other books have described the specter of American decline, but none has been so comprehensive in its diagnosis or forward-looking—and non-ideological—in its remedies, explaining how we might yet overcome national self-doubt to reclaim our traditional optimism, reassert our place in the world, and secure a prosperous future for our citizens.

Looking beyond the headlines to address the enduring grand strategic questions facing the United States today. American foreign policy is in a state of upheaval. The rise of Donald Trump and his "America First" platform have created more uncertainty about America's role in the world than at any time in recent decades. From the South China Sea, to the Middle East, to the Baltics and Eastern Europe, the geopolitical challenges to U.S. power and influence seem increasingly severe—and America's responses to those challenges seem increasingly unsure. Questions that once had widely accepted answers are now up for debate. What role should the United States play in the world? Can, and should, America continue to pursue an engaged an assertive strategy in global affairs? In this book, a leading scholar of grand strategy helps to make sense of the headlines and the upheaval by providing sharp yet nuanced assessments of the most critical issues in American grand strategy today. Hal Brands asks, and answers, such questions as: Has America really blundered aimlessly in the world since the end of the Cold War, or has its grand strategy actually been mostly sensible and effective? Is America in terminal decline, or can it maintain its edge in a harsher and more competitive environment? Did the Obama administration pursue a policy of disastrous retrenchment, or did it execute a shrewd grand strategy focused on maximizing U.S. power for the long term? Does Donald Trump's presidency mean that American internationalism is dead? What type of grand strategy might America pursue in the age of Trump and after? What would happen if the United States radically pulled back from the world, as many leading academics—and, at certain moments, the current president—have advocated? How much military power does America need in the current international environment? Grappling with these kinds of issues is essential to understanding the state of America's foreign relations today and what path the country might take in the years ahead. At a time when American grand strategy often seems consumed by crisis, this collection of essays provides an invaluable guide to thinking about both the recent past and the future of America's role in the world.

"Age of Iron attempts to describe the past, present, and possible future of conservative nationalism in American foreign policy. It argues that a kind of conservative US nationalism long predates the Trump presidency, and goes back to the American founding. Different aspects of conservative American nationalism have been incorporated into the Republican Party from its creation. Every Republican president since Theodore Roosevelt has tried to balance elements of this tradition with global US foreign policy priorities. Donald Trump was able to win his party's nomination and rise to the presidency, in part, by challenging liberal internationalist assumptions. Yet in practice, he too has combined nationalist assumptions with global US foreign policy priorities. The long-term trend within the Republican party, predating Trump, is toward political populism, cultural conservatism, and white working-class voters -- and this has international implications. Republican foreign policy nationalism is not about to disappear. The book concludes with recommendations for US foreign policy, based upon an understanding that the optimism of the post-Cold War quarter-century is over. Nationalism; conservatism; populism; Trump presidency; American foreign policy; liberal internationalism; US diplomatic history; geopolitics; American party politics; the Republican Party"--

Donald Trump’s election has called into question many fundamental assumptions about politics and society. Should the forty-fifth president of the United States make us reconsider the nature and future of the global order? Collecting a wide range of perspectives from leading political scientists, historians, and international-relations scholars, Chaos in the Liberal Order explores the global trends that led to Trump’s stunning victory and the impact his presidency will have on the international political landscape. Contributors situate Trump among past foreign policy upheavals and enduring models for global governance, seeking to understand how and why he departs from precedents and norms. The book considers key issues, such as what Trump means for America’s role in the world; the relationship between domestic and international politics; and Trump’s place in the rise of the far right worldwide. It poses challenging questions, including: Does Trump’s election signal the downfall of the liberal order or unveil its resilience? What is the importance of individual leaders for the international system, and to what extent is Trump an outlier? Is there a Trump doctrine, or is America’s president fundamentally impulsive and scattershot? The book considers the effects of Trump’s presidency on trends in human rights, international alliances, and regional conflicts. With provocative contributions from prominent figures such as Stephen M. Walt, Andrew J. Bacevich, and Samuel Moyn, this timely collection brings much-needed expert perspectives on our tumultuous era.

This book explores U.S.-Taiwan-China relations during both the Trump and Biden administrations, revealing how policy changes under both presidents have impacted Washington’s decades-long strategic policy framework for Cross-Strait Relations. By tracing the continuities and changes of U.S. Strategic ambiguity and One-China Policy framework between the Trump and Biden administrations, the book assesses how the foreign policy prism, through which U.S. leaders view China and Taiwan, has experienced a distinct alteration and subsequently led to a policy adjustment. Utilising a wide range of documents and primary material, such as White House documents (ranging from the Clinton to the Biden administrations) in conjunction with interviews with Taiwan officials, this volume brings a detailed portrait of past, present, and potential future U.S.-Taiwan-China relations. Moreover, it provides a succinct examination of U.S. foreign policy traditions such as internationalism, nationalism, and multilateral nationalism (providing a study of U.S.-China relations and policies from Nixon to Biden) and the resulting influence of such traditions on recent U.S. Cross-Strait policy. Presenting a comprehensive study of both the Trump and Biden administrations approach to Taiwan, this will be a valuable resource for any scholar or student of U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S.-Taiwan-China Relations and Cross-Strait Relations.

Blackwill examines in detail Trump's actions in a turbulent world in important policy areas, including the United States' relationships with its allies, its relationships with China and Russia, and its policies on the Middle East and climate change. This report acknowledges the persuasive points of Trump's critics, but at the same time seeks to perform exacting autopsies on their less convincing critiques.