Status enhancement and attention-seeking in the transatlantic relationship: the Visegrad states and the Trump administration

Abstract

In 2016 the Visegrad states' political representatives were seemingly more comfortable with the election of Donald Trump than their Western EU counterparts. Though this geographical rift among EU members in accepting the Trump administration can be viewed partly through ideological proximity of contemporary Visegrad governments to the Trump agenda, this article argues that the matter should be analyzed through the prism of status enhancement. The V4 states are still perceived as new members and even “junior partners” within the Transatlantic community, burdened with the post-communist semi-peripheral position in the global economy, and have felt deprived of attention from their most significant peer partner—the US—during previous presidential administrations. The Trump administration presented a unique window of opportunity for the Visegrad states to remind the USA of their persisting partnership and contribution to the survival of the Transatlantic community through various substantive initiatives. On the case of status-enhancing behavior of the Visegrad states during the Trump presidency, the paper introduces three attention-seeking mechanisms—agenda co-option, ideational alignment and partnership concessions—employed by the respective governments. The paper argues that the V4 states individually sought attention from the Trump administration, which hence served as a social reinforcer of their relevance and worth for the Transatlantic club, but also as part of domestic political legitimation.