By Benjamin Burton
(CWBN)_Donald Trump’s foreign policy is marked by unilateralism and confrontational approach. What is noteworthy is the fact that irrespective of short term and long term policy implications, Trump abandoned US traditional foreign policy of multilateralism in favour of his own brand of unilateralism and confrontational approach.
America first
As with many of his tweets and political rhetoric and absolute lies, his Foreign Policy, to say the least, is also aggressive and could be defined by two words: “America first”.
It was clear from his early days of the 2016 political campaign run up to the Presidential election, that he would rigorously pursue “America first” approach.
Now, after four years of his presidency, which is marked by chaotic incidents like those of the protests by Black Lives Matters Movement and the ongoing costly trade war with China, his foreign policy is still dominated by unilateralism and a confrontational approach.
Trump’s influence in the area of International Relations
Irrespective of the outcome of the US election on November 3, substantial changes under the Trump regime in the US foreign policy have virtually reconfigured the sphere of International Relations in general and diplomacy in particular, compelling other actors to alter not only the ways in which they conduct diplomacy, but also their own approaches.
Some of the major shifts:
Disbanding multilateralism
As soon as he assumed office as the 45th President of the USA, Trump abandoned and began to undermine international cooperation. Within three days, he withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement with Asian nations. He extended his crusade of anti-globalisation and made executive orders to withdraw US from international accords and bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council and the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.
Formal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel
One of his daring act of unilateralism, totally disregarding international consensus, was his decision to formally recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to relocate the US Embassy there.
With this decision, a survey from the Pew Research Center found that the US’s approval among many nations has dropped to the lowest level in decades.
Trans-Atlantic relationship damaged
Among his successive withdrawals, perhaps the most prominent and damaging was the withdrawal from Trans-Atlantic Partnership, which came into being in the aftermath of World War II and by and large represented shared values, goals and global approaches that the US had with its European partners.
Although it was identified as Trump’s philosophical difference, it was more than mere philosophical differences as he often criticised and questioned the value of alliances like NATO, announced withdrawal of US troops from Germany and also went to the extent of enacting tariffs against the EU and threatened to impose sanctions on Russia over the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2.
These actions on Trump’s part have caused irreparable damage to the trust of the US’s European partners.
Trump’s Chinese policy
Although the trade war and tit-for-tat tariff against China effectively hurt both countries, the two largest economies of the world, no one could rule out some of the allegations that Trump leveled against China, such as China violating copyright and intellectual property laws and unfairly benefiting by global trade, while pursuing a neo-mercantile approach and jealously guarding its domestic markets from foreign competitors.
Openly preventing the Chinese company Huawei from its 5G network construction and forcing other countries to toe the line have virtually forced the global attention to emerging Asian markets as potential investment destinations.
Trump’s Twitter messages
Trump’s twitter messages often gave conflicting signals and mixed messages. His tweets were of often consisted bellicose rhetoric.
Though his tweets did not alter diplomatic relations to a greater degree, they also did considerable damage and virtually made the diplomatic community baffled by the mixed signals that the head of the state of the US gave.
One of the allegations that foreign policy scholars leveled against Trump was his inconsistent approach to despots, ranging from admiration to condoning them. He continued a relationship, for instance, with the Saudi Royal family in the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, despite evidence to suggest the direct involvement of the Saudi royal family in the murder.
Trump praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He said, “I was really being tough and so was he,” and “we would go back and forth. And then we fell in love. No really. He wrote me beautiful letters.” About the letters he said, “They were great letters. And then we fell in love.”
Among his admirers were Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki. Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well, which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come!” (July 18, 2018)
“President Xi, who is a strong man, I call him King, he said, ‘But I am not King, I am president.’ I said, ‘No, you’re president for life and therefore, you’re King.’ He said, ‘Huh. Huh.’ He liked that.” (April 2, 2019)
“I had President Xi, who’s a friend of mine, who’s a very, very good man.” (April 12, 2018)
“Well, thank you very much. It’s my honor to be with a friend of mine, somebody I’ve become very close to, in many respects, and he’s doing a very good job”: the President of Turkey. (June 29, 2019)
US withdrawals under Trump Administration
International Treaties, Agreements and Institutions
- 2017- Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) –International Trade Agreement
- 2018-UNESCO –The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
- Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)-popularly known as Iran nuclear deal.
- UNRWA –United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
- UNHCR-United Nations Human Rights Council.
- Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) –banned land-based Nuclear Deals.
- 2020- Paris Agreement –Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
- Treaty on Open Skies- Allows reconnaissance flights over other countries’ military installations.
- 2021- WHO-World Health Organisation.
