Trump’s World and the American Experiment
Despite its shortcomings, the “American Experiment” was intended to change the world for the better. Already the New World’s early settlers viewed their country to be very special. Yet in the course of American history, its “exceptionalism” manifested itself in different ways: Either the self-sufficient „city upon a hill” served merely as a shining role model for others. Or America tried to pro-actively change the world, through diplomatic or military means—unilaterally or with the help of allies.
According to the current US President Donald Trump, military might guarantees America’s “transactional leadership”. In Trump’s “realist” world, states do not have friends, only interests. Moreover, there are no common interests: Trump thinks that he can only win at the expense of all the others. This pre-industrial zero-sum mercantilist thinking is at odds with the modern idea of a global free market economy—and the economic ideas of the modern Republican party.
David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the New York Times bestseller “Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic”, will discuss with Josef Braml, the head of DGAP’s program USA/Transatlantic Relations, how Trump’s world view fits into the American tradition, and what we may expect of the future of the Republican party and its foreign policy.
We are looking forward to a lively discussion, which will be moderated by Martin Bialecki, the editor-in-chief of the journals Internationale Politik (IP) and Berlin Policy Journal (BPJ).