The Trump administration’s foreign policy is challenging longstanding assumptions about alliance politics, multilateralism, diplomacy, expertise, communication, and the relationship between domestic politics and international strategy. Whether interpreted as disruption, reversion, innovation, or erosion, the Trump years are galvanising the need to better understand contemporary foreign policy practice. This Workshop explores these questions.
Programme
9-9.20am
Registration
9.20-9.30am
Welcome/introductions
9.30-11am
Panel 1: Responding to Trump
Chair: Marius Buga, KCL
- Dr Christopher Feathersone (York), “Make MAGA exceptional again? American Exceptionalism in the Trump Administration”
- Dr Seckin Baris Gulmez (KIMEP University), “Anti-Diplomacy 2.0: The Transformation of US Diplomacy in Trump’s Second Term”
- Dr Sophie Kaldor (LSE), “Trump’s Uncertainty: Distinguishing Exploratory Action from Grand Strategy”
11-11.30am
Break
11.30am-1pm
Panel 2: Responding to Trump
Chair: Dr. Sophie Kaldor, LSE
- Dr Quintijn Kat (Ashoka University), “Changing Roles, Changing Order: A Role Theory Perspective on Latin American Active Non-Alignment in the age of Trump”
- Dr David Kenyon (KCL), “Gesture or Diplomacy? The US Terrorist Designation of the PCC and CV”
- Dr Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters (Maastricht University), “The Minilateral Turn: Security Cooperation in the Context of a Changing Euro-Atlantic Order” 4. Marius Buga (KCL), “Super-Atlanticism under strain: Baltic responses to the Greenland crisis”
1-1.45pm
Lunch
1.45-3.15pm
Panel 3: Rewriting the rules
Chair: Dr. Christopher Featherstone, York
- Dr Maíra Fedatto (LSE), “From Shared Responsibility to National Interest: The America First Global Health Strategy and the Delegitimisation of the World Health Organization”
- Dr Tahani Mustafa (KCL), “Discretion or Indiscretion? Trump’s Board of Peace and International Order in Gaza”
- Margherita Mencarelli (University of Birmingham & University for Foreigners of Perugia), “Trump 2.0: Minilateralism, Transactionalism, and Conflict Management in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict”
- Jack Clayton (University of London), “America’s New “Orderlessness” The Recasting of U.S. Exceptionalism Without Rules”
3.15-3.45pm
Break
3.45-5.15pm
Panel 4: The Tools of Foreign Policy
Chair: Dr. Tahani Mustafa, KCL
- Tonghua Li (York), “Decentering China? The Configurational Politics of Trump’s Trade Policy”
- Yi-Chuan Chiu (Oxford), “Can Ambiguity be Strategic? US Policy toward Taiwan under Trump 2.0”
- Yifan Jia (KCL), “Executive Discretion and the Politics of Sanctions in the Trump-Era US Foreign Policy”
The registration deadline for those presenting is Friday 25 September. Observers can register until Friday 9 October.