Isolationism as the United States’ Grand Strategy: From the Founding Fathers to Donald Trump
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu06.2024.103Abstract
The article explores the characteristic features and controversies of the grand strategy of the 45th president of the United States in the context of the evolution of the US isolationism as one of the main historical strands in the US foreign policy thought. In order to provide a more nuanced approach than the classical isolationism-internationalism dichotomy the author turns to the four schools theory of American historian W. R. Mead. Within the theory framework, the two isolationist schools, i.e., Jeffersonianism and Jacksonianism, are studied in detail. As a special methodology, the author applies neoclassical realism, which allows to determine the impact of domestic factors on the controversial nature of Trumps’ grand strategy. Isolationist ideas are studied on the example of the interwar period when the public debate about the course of the US foreign policy reached its peak. The next section analyzes D. Trump's grand strategy using the theory of W. R. Mead and neoclassical realism methodology. Despite the fact that Trump’s ideology combined Jeffersonian and Jacksonian components, in practice the 45th President gravitated more towards Jacksonian hawks than to the minimalist realism of the Jeffersonian school. The differences from the Jeffersonian school were especially evident in the spheres of defense and security policy. Finally, the resistance of the foreign policy apparatus, opposition of the Congress and the subjective inconsistency of Trump explain the failures in the implementation of Trump’s grand strategy. The author draws the conclusion about the coexistence of the two parallel grand strategies during Trump’s presidency: isolationism and interventionism.
Keywords:
grand strategy, isolationism, interventionism, nationalism, C. Lindbergh, D. Trump, R. M. La Follette, Jr., W. Borah
Downloads
References
Brands, H. (2018), American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump, Washington: The Brookings Institution Press.
Ripsman, N., Taliaferro, J. and Lobell, S. (2016), Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics, New York: Oxford University Press.
Mead, W. (2001), Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World. New York: Knopf.
Remarks by President Trump to the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (2017), The White House, September 19. URL: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-72nd-session-united-nations-general-assembly/ (дата обращения: 10.05.2023).
Washington’s Farewell Address to the People of the United States. 106th Congress. 2nd Session. Senate Document no. 106–21, Washington, 2000. URL: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CDOC-106sdoc21/pdf/GPO-CDOC-106sdoc21.pdf (дата обращения: 08.02.2023).
Monroe Doctrine (1823), National Archives. URL: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/monroe-doctrine (дата обращения: 8.02.2023).
Nichols, C. M. (2011), Promise And Peril: America At The Dawn Of A Global Age, Harvard University Press.
Dueck, C. (2020), Age of Iron: On Conservative Nationalism, Oxford University Press.
Cole, W. S. (1951), The America First Committee, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 305–322.
New York City Speech — America First Committee. URL: http://www.charleslindbergh.com/americanfirst/speech2.asp (дата обращения: 13.02.2023).
Defend America First: A Compilation of Five Addresses Delivered on Behalf of the America First Committee Prior to the Advent of U. S. Intervention in the 1939–1945 War in Europe. The Barnes Review. URL: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/52895093/defend-america-first (дата обращения: 12.02.2023).
Cole, W. S. (1992/1993), United States Isolationism in the 1990s?, International Journal, vol. 48, no. 1., pp. 32–51.
McFadden, R. D. Ross Perot, Brash Texas Billionaire Who Ran for President, Dies at 89 (2019), New York Times, July 9. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/us/politics/ross-perot-death.html (дата обращения: 17.02.2023).
Crawford, N. C. The U. S. Budgetary Costs of the Post-9/11 Wars, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. URL: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/BudgetaryCosts (дата обращения: 17.02.2023).
Pew Research Center, Public Uncertain, Divided over America’s Place in the World (2016), May 5. URL: https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/05/05-05-2016-Foreign-policy-APW-release.pdf (дата обращения: 12.03.2023).
The Inaugural Address (2017), The White House, January 20. URL: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/the-inaugural-address/ (дата обращения: 10.02.2023).
Remarks by President Trump to the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (2019), The White House, September 25. URL: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-74th-session-united-nations-general-assembly/ (дата обращения: 10.05.2023).
Holland, S. (2020), Trump to West Point grads: ‘We are ending the era of endless wars’. Reuters, June 13. URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wars-idUSKBN23K0PR (дата обращения: 10.02.2023).
Barnes, J. E. and Schmitt, E. (2019), Trump Orders Withdrawal of U. S. Troops From Northern Syria, New York Times, October 16. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/us/politics/mark-esper-syria-kurds-turkey.html (дата обращения: 19.02.2023).
Stewart, P. and Idrees, A. (2020), U. S. to withdraw about 12,000 troops from Germany but nearly half to stay in Europe, Reuters, July 29. URL: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-germany-military-idUSKCN24U20L (дата обращения: 19.02.2023).
Baldor, L. C. (2021), Biden halts Trump-ordered US troops cuts in Germany, AP News, February 5. URL: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-military-facilities-europe-lloyd-austin-ff57f288a1bb3e5a38e3253ea0b94d80 (дата обращения: 19.02.2023).
National Security Strategy of the United States of America, December 2017. URL: https://trump-whitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NSS-Final-12-18-2017-0905.pdf (дата обращения: 26.02.2023).
The World Bank, Military expenditure (% of GDP) — United States. URL: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?locations=US (дата обращения: 18.02.2023).
American Isolationism, With a Very, Very Big Stick (2017), May 17. URL: https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/17/american-isolationism-with-a-very-very-big-stick-trump-clinton-election/ (дата обращения: 19.02.2023).
Posen, B. R. (2018), The Rise of Illiberal Hegemony: Trump’s Surprising Grand Strategy, Foreign Affairs, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 20–27.
Powaski, R. E. (2019), Ideals, Interests, and U. S. Foreign Policy from George H. W. Bush to Donald Trump, Palgrave Macmillan.
Sloan, A. and Podkul, C. (2021), Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years, ProPublica, January 14. URL: https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump (дата обращения: 30.03.2023).
Ignatius, D. (2017), The most surprising thing about Trump’s U. N. speech, The Washington Post, September 19. URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-strikingly-conventional-un-speech/2017/09/19/876cb41a-9d75-11e7-9c8d-cf053ff30921_story.html (дата обращения: 10.05.2023).
Summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy: Sharpening the American Military’s Competitive Edge, Department of Defense. URL: https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf (дата обращения: 11.02.2023).
Sonne, P., Dawsey, J. and Ryan, M. (2018), Mattis resigns after clash with Trump over troop withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan, The Washington Post, December 20. URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-announces-mattis-will-leave-as-defense-secretary-at-the-end-of-february/2018/12/20/e1a846ee-e147-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html (дата обращения: 22.02.2023).
Read Defense Secretary Mattis’ resignation letter (2018), The Military Times, December 21. URL: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2018/12/20/read-defense-secretary-mattis-resignation-letter/ (дата обращения: 22.02.2023).
Baker, P. (2019), Trump Ousts John Bolton as National Security Adviser, New York Times, September 11. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/us/politics/john-bolton-national-security-adviser-trump.html (дата обращения: 24.02.2023).
Baker, P. and Haberman, M. (2019), Trump Undercuts Bolton on North Korea and Iran. New York Times, May 28. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/us/politics/trump-john-bolton-north-korea-iran.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer (дата обращения: 24.02.2023).
Morgenstern, E. M., Cook, N., Brown, N. M., Lum, T., Blanchfield, L., Meyer, P. J. and Akhtar, Sh. I. (2021), Selected Trump Administration Foreign Aid Priorities: A Wrap-Up, Congressional Research Service, January 21. URL: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46656 (дата обращения: 27.02.2023).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. International relations" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.
