Trump's Jacksonian Foreign Policy and its Implications for European Security
To understand what is likely to drive Trump, it is important to understand the domestic context in which he operates. Efforts to categorize him as isolationist or internationalist, hawk or dove, realist or idealist do little to help one understand Trump's domestic political base, which serves as the starting point to understand his foreign and security policies. After all, it's the politics, stupid.
Great political traditions have shaped the way Americans have tended to debate how their country should relate to the rest of the world.1 Two of these traditions – the Jacksonians and the Jeffersonians – look largely inward, whereas the other two - Wilsonians and Hamiltonians – gaze outward. Trump owes his election to a surge of Jacksonian anger. Understanding these traditions, particularly Jackson-ianism, is key to understanding Trump.
