Trump’s Approach to Foreign Policy
A faculty roundtable discusses what’s at stake on the world stage as Donald Trump takes office.
The first in a three-part series of roundtable discussions, produced in collaboration with HKS Magazine, on the challenges facing President-elect Trump in foreign policy, economics, and leadership.
For the better part of a century, the world has experienced an extended period of stability thanks to a patchwork quilt of defense alliances, trade agreements, and multilateral organizations first established in the wake of the Second World War. For most of the world, that stability has also meant prosperity. Global rates of violence, poverty, and disease have dropped significantly while literacy and education are growing faster than ever.
No country has benefited more from this world order than the United States, so it’s little surprise that incoming presidential administrations from both parties have successively reiterated and affirmed U.S. commitments to maintain it.
Until now.
While the 2016 presidential race saw hints of protectionism on both sides, President-elect Donald Trump went farther than most. On the campaign trail, he chastised free trade agreements, refused to commit to NATO’s mutual defense clause, and questioned the fairness of other nations benefiting from the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Trump’s victory has sowed significant doubt about whether the U.S. will live up to its international commitments.
If you’re wondering how all this will play out, you’re not alone.
To try to find some answers, we invited three faculty experts, each with a unique perspective on what’s at stake, to discuss and debate what to expect when President-elect Trump takes office.
Lecturer Juliette Kayyem is a national security analyst who served as Massachusetts’ first undersecretary for homeland security, as well as an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Professor Nicholas Burns spent nearly three decades as a U.S. foreign service officer, rising to the third-ranking position at the state department as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs during the Bush administration. He has also served as U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Greece.
Professor Stephen Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the author of four books on international relations, including The Origins of Alliances.
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Matt Cadwallader has been the host of Harvard Kennedy School PolicyCast for nearly five years, interviewing more than 150 guests on all manner of issues related to public policy, governance, and international affairs.
