Traits transcends into a doctrine: a case of Trump!

Doctrines are those frameworks which highlight the approach or strategy of a political actor. Usually, if we witnessed the history of United States of America presidents, it covers a single mechanism on which they lean, like the Obama Doctrine, which is based on his Reaper presidency or the Bush Doctrine, which is substantiated on preemptive strikes. The case isn't juxtaposed with Trump as his actions are varied then his practices. In this article I will further elaborate that on what set of principles, his strategy to conduct in an international arena is constructed. It occurs because of his unconventional Foreign Policy which is grounded on the amalgamation of varied stratagems.

 First and foremost, he doesn’t like to subordinate USA sovereignty to any kind of transnational organizations or multilateral institutions. This is the reason he withdraws from some regional integration commitments like Paris Peace Agreement, Trans Pacific Partnership, Iran nuclear deal or World Trade Organization; he retreats from them because he believes in bilateral negotiations in which the bargainingleverage for US increases and they are not able to constrained US behavior. This deepens his mindset that international politics undertones into two phenomena Transactional realism and maneuvering.

 Second, his actions have some tidbits of Jacksonian approach which when marriages with populism, adopts a zero-sum world view and replete with a materialist definition of power having unilateral not expansionist tinges. The tint of populism adds a flavor of alienation or marginalization, causing his ‘Us vs. Them’ strategy to target on Mexicans, Muslims and China. This slender him towards a vein of neo-conservatism accumulating civilizational and Manichean tropes which later on excels into a selective isolationist impulse.  

Third, he likes his opponents to be in a state of deception, confusion and chaos, so that they are not able to decipher his next move and generates an air of uncertainty. This trait of him took us to tactics of Sun Tzu and Machiavelli.

Forth, he doesn’t digest the concept of World Order Building, due to this facet he tends to rejects the notion of ‘America Decline’ or ‘post-American World’, rather, he has a faith in ‘neo-American World’, meaning, if America is economically strong than it is geopolitically strong as well. That is why he put Iran in a consequence, as according to him Iran is weak and therefore, he gets a chance to showcase a demonstrable triumph of victory just to pose an impact on the world.

Fifth, he castoff kinetic forces but engage in offensive economic policies (economic sanctions) just like he did with his geopolitical opponents North Korea, Iran and China.

Sixth, he is antithetical to liberal internationalist as he shuns commitments and downplay with the liberal values. The matter of fact is that he contemplates that free trade regime is not advantageous for United States as its economy is not heavily depended upon exports.

His doctrine contains such traits because he is a businessman and a foreigner to bureaucracy and government. Thus, he dealt everything with his own management tools which according to him is sensible and tested one. Plus, he is a theatrical producer i.e. he had the ability to master international media so that everybody says Trump, which for him is a ‘real’ success; unlike the others who study briefing or theoretical tools. Addition to this, he creates a ‘cult of personality’ Infront mass media so that he lives in the minds of people and of his opponents. He doesn’t crave for conflict but he wants to win theatrical victories i.e. he does not want pareto-optimal outcomes.