Abstract
For the past two centuries, the U.S. has witnessed the proliferation of numerous foreign policy doctrines that allegedly serve to guide the nation’s international relations. In recent years, there has been considerable debate around the question of whether there is a Trump doctrine and, if so, what its main features are. Several officials in the Trump administration have adamantly insisted that the Trump doctrine is a radical rearticulation of U.S. foreign policy. Others, however, have rejected the mere idea of a Trump doctrine. To address the questions regarding the Trump doctrine, we employ a longitudinal comparative design and use a structured focus comparison to analyze Trump’s Middle East policy—namely the decision to surge U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the U.S. military strikes in Syria (2017 and 2018), the cancelation of the strike on Iran after the downing of a U.S. drone, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, and the killing of Iranian General Qasem Suleimani. Our case studies confirm that Trump’s unique management style hindered the development of a coherent and consistent set of principles that could guide U.S. foreign policy, and we argue for a foreign policy decision-making process that is based on a more informed and judicious assessment of the challenges to America’s national interest.
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da Vinha, L., Dutton, A. (2023). In Search of the Elusive Trump Doctrine. In: Akande, A. (eds) The Perils of Populism. Springer Studies on Populism, Identity Politics and Social Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36343-6_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36343-6_6
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