The President of Withdrawals: How the Trump Administration Changed the US' Power Status

Absztrakt (kivonat)

The United States withdrew from numerous international institutions, which significantly impacted the international system. American people have elected Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016, who have started a foreign policy raid after his inauguration in January 2017. In my research, I aimed to determine how the Trump administration’s withdrawals affected the liberal international order, and to what extent Trump’s personality played a role in that. The liberal order has long been driven by the US and can be regarded as its ideological father. I tested the hypothesis that the US’ leading role in the LIO has deteriorated by applying case studies of withdrawals from different policy fields. However, in order to understand the withdrawals, I made a descriptive part that examined the Trump phenomenon. The results showed that US leadership in the LIO indeed deteriorated, and American turnabout has long-lastingly affected the four examined policy fields. The results have shed light on how fragile the LIO is, and how important it is to have a strong and tendentious America on the lead.