CSS Arbeitstagung: US Foreign and National Security Policy in the Trump Era

US President Donald Trump has been causing uncertainty in Europe. Will his administration continue to advocate for the liberal world order, as all the US-presidents since the Second World War used to do? This fundamental question was crucial in all presentations and discussions of the ETH Workshop which took place on 23 June 2017, dealing with the American Foreign and Security Policy under Trump. External speakers were, among others, Prof. Hal Brands (Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.); Prof. Manfred Elsig (University of Bern); Prof. Toby Dodge (London School of Economics); and Dr. Bruno Tertrais (Fondation pour la recherché stratégique, Paris). The speaker’s general assessment varied between an optimistic judgement, in which Trump was only seen as a transitory phenomenon since advocacy for a liberal world order is still supported by a majority of Americans; and a pessimistic view which expected a permanent withdrawal of the United States and its focus on narrowly defined national objectives instead.