TRUMP AND THE INFLECTION OF THE GRAND STRATEGY

Abstract

This article examines if the foreign policy in Mr. Donald Trump administration is somehow subject to a grand strategy. For this purpose, we begin by discussing what a grand strategy is and how this concept differs from the one of foreign policy. At the same time, we explain the importance of the grand strategy for the endurance of U.S. hegemony throughout the Cold War. In this sense, we argue that the bipartisan consensus related to strategic means was crucial for the elaboration and final success of the grand strategy. Next, we discuss how hard it is the exercise of hegemony in the absence of a grand strategy. Actually, this was the situation face by post-Cold War governments. Finally, we debate if Mr. Trump’s administration has or not a grand strategy. We also point to the dissolution of the bipartisan consensus. The U.S. establishment recognizes the irresistible rise of China as U.S. main rival. Still, despite it, U.S. foreign policy-makers have major difficulties to elaborate a grand strategy capable of ensuring U.S. hegemony and the capacity of managing an international order accordingly to its national interests.