During the election campaign speeches, Donald Trump widely criticized the domestic and foreign policies of the former president Barack Obama. The criticism was so bitter that when he assumed the office in early January this year, the world expected to see from the new American leader a different approach to the global issues.
The new president during the early months of his presidency at the White House has been weighing up the conditions, something took him to reduce the degree of severity of his campaign-time stances. However, there are obvious reasons indicating that Trump is taking a course in foreign policy different from that of his predecessor Obama.
During an address last month, the American president emphasized on reshuffling the nation’s foreign policy. He further in a Twitter post on April 17 labelled the Obama administration foreign policy during the past eight years a “total failure.”
What makes Trump policy different from Obama's?
Iran, nuclear deal, negotiations
Since very beginning days of his presidency, Trump was a vociferous opponent of the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and striking a deal with Tehran over the case that was later called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCOPA). In a climactic point of his slamming of Obama administration involvement in a deal with Tehran, Trump said that he will “rip up” the agreement if he became president of the US. He vocally called accord in best interest of Iran while against that of the US leading to boost of the Islamic Republic’s power as well as expansion of its presence and influence in the region.
These aggressive Trump stances came while during the talks on the nuclear deal, Obama and his foreign policy team were key parties among others. They defended the deal as the best possible “chance of peace” for two sides. Although after assumption of power Trump softened his view on the nuclear deal and stopped his anti-deal rhetoric and aides to him said that he will keep it standing, yet a clear line can be drawn between his view on the nuclear agreement with Iran and Obama’s.
US-Cuba relations
The two countries had no diplomatic relations since 1961 due to lasting hostility largely led by Washington against Havana. During the last years of his administration, Obama normalized relations with Cuba, drawing welcome of the Cuban President Raul Castro who succeeded in 2008 his revolutionary brother Fidel Castro. Trump last week, however, reversed the Obama-era thaw deal with Cuba, making everything with Havana back to the square one. The Cubans reacted to the rollback, saying that they “will not negotiate under pressure.” The analysts suggest that Obama policy of overhauling the US policy to get such countries as Cuba on the track of American policies is practically hit by Trump’s veto.
West Asian policy and US allies
Unconditional US support for Washington’s allies in West Asia region has been a fixed strategy of any American administration despite some conflict of policies. But there is an apparent distinction between Trump and the earlier administrations, including Obama. The Arab world’s uprisings of 2011 and specifically Obama team’s approaches to them further uncovered the distinction. Obama faced a sweeping wave of Arab world domestic changes working against the US allies such as Hosni Mubarak of Egypt who held highly friendly relations with the Israeli regime. As part of responding to the people's democratic demands in Egypt, Obama decided to allow one of Washington's key allies in the region to fall.
This decision was made by Obama’s foreign policy team to make sure that the US will stay with its influence guaranteed in the region, having in mind that support of dictator could only bring public opinion's aversion to the US across the region. Obama at the same time blasted the army coup of 2013 that removed from power Mohamad Morsi, Egypt's only democratically-elected president.
But Trump has taken a different track in foreign policy. He seeks to protect allies not for the sake of the Arab world public opinion but to serve American interests that also cover guaranteeing security of the Israeli regime. For Trump, relations with President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi of Egypt makes sense only until he poses no threats to Tel Aviv. In other countries, this very policy is implemented, only regarding allies that directly serve the American interests.
Qatar, for example, is one of those American allies that recently saw its relations with Saudi Arabia strained. The escalation of tensions between Doha and Riyadh-led bloc of Arab states stems from Qatar’s 2014 backing for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and questioning validity of Saudi Arabia's anti-Iranian stances. Trump is expected to deal with Qatar-Saudi Arabia row according to current interest-serving foreign policy principles.
Democracy and human rights
These two fundamental issues were a point of consideration by the Obama administration’s foreign policy, making it put strains on some of Washington allies in which democratic values and human rights received no respect. The best example is Saudi Arabia. During presidency of Obama, US-Saudi ties survived serious damages but they experienced some chill particularly during the last years of Obama government. Trump era is expected to steer clear of such differences as he uses human rights as instruments for pushing towards goals rather than holding them as goals like his predecessor. This was glaringly apparent in the Trump’s late May visit of Saudi Arabia during which security and economic cases received the largest focus while democracy and large-scale human rights violations in the Arab kingdom were turned a blind eye to. This example of Trump policy also works on other allied states.
International policies and policy of reversal
When it comes to Obama policy, it revolved around ensuring the biggest US role and participation on the international stage. But Trump won the election by slogans that put premium on domestic policies. Slogans like “America is for the Americans” and “everything should serve America” helped him lead his campaign to success. As an act of realizing his promise for restoring profit to the domestic industries and markets, Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate change agreement reached during the Obama administration. The critics lashed out at his measure as an anti-environmental step. He before this move, revoked laws of this kind. He is expected to further reduce the US participation in international initiatives of this kind compared to Obama.
All in all, it should be noted that the American foreign policy principles are stable to a large extent, leading the various administrations to similar directions. Still, some superficial conflicts may appear in various government’s policies, all related to how every government pursues ways to the goals. This is clear in discord of policies of the Republican Trump and his predecessor the Democratic Obama.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/7251
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