Trump’s Foreign Policy Agenda is Anything but Isolationism

Abstract

It is a common narrative among politicians and political experts that Trump’s foreign policy is turning the US inwards and abandoning its global leadership: i.e. what we now are witnessing is a new form of isolationism. However, if you look at the administration’s vision and strategy, you won’t find isolation, but rather an active foreign policy, including the desire of a continued global supremacy. It is perhaps a more unilateral approach, but at the same time it is following a pattern in US foreign policy that we should pay more attention to, namely how every administration is using the opportunity to expand US spheres of influence when possible. This is done by re-formulating its global role and the means to achieve it. This paper will focus on the ways Trump’s election and his “America First” policies and the administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) are part of a broader pattern that is often ignored.