US Foreign Policy: From Obama to Trump

Abstract

This panel brings together leading experts on US foreign policy from Europe, North America and Australia. The proposed panel for the Oslo 2017 Conference reconvenes a panel from the 2015 ECPR General Conference in Montreal on “Obama’s foreign policy” and will involve all of the same participants. With a new president in the White House, the panellists will offer early assessments of President Trump’s foreign policy agenda, ideology, and actions. There will be papers considering the ideology and rhetoric of President Trump as well as papers examining Trump’s foreign policy leadership and whether his approach to the world resembles a “grand strategy”. Another paper will specifically look at President Trump’s attitude to the alliance system in East Asia. The last paper will examine the continuities between President Obama’s and President Trump’s approaches to foreign affairs. It is likely that the papers will have divergent views on the degree of change and continuity between the foreign policies of the Obama and Trump administrations. Given the dramatic and concerning statements Trump has made about the future of US foreign policy, this panel will offer a timely scholarly assessment. The panel will discuss where this rhetoric has led to in the first year of the administration and where Trump’s foreign policy seems likely to head in the future. The scholars will offer serious analysis of Trump by drawing on theoretical and conceptual models from their previous work on US foreign policy. It is likely the papers will be brought together in an edited collection or a special issue of a journal.