Profs and Pints DC presents: “Trump and the World,” on foreign policy and the new Trump administration, with Garret Martin, professorial lecturer in foreign policy and global security at American University and co-director of its Transatlantic Policy Center.
Considerations of foreign policy rarely do much to determine the outcome of US presidential elections. The 2024 election was no exception, with voters mainly driven by their concerns about immigration, the economy, and the state of democracy. Yet Presidents often are forced to spend a significant amount of time focused on the major international challenges of the day.
Join historian and political scientist Garret Martin for a discussion of what we might expect from President Donald Trump’s foreign policy as he takes office in a very challenging global context.
We’ll start by briefly looking at Trump’s foreign-policy record during his first term in office and at how questions related to foreign policy were tackled by his 2024 campaign. From there, we’ll examine the President’s nominations for key national security posts, considering what those might tell us about Trump’s plans.
Unlike in 2016, when Trump’s election came as a shock for many international observers, his recent win was far less of a surprise for allies and adversaries alike. But that might not necessarily mean they are better prepared to respond to Trump’s mercurial approach to foreign policy. Martin will discuss how domestic challenges in key European countries, such as France and Germany, will hamper their abilities to respond to the pressures from the United States.
Among the questions Dr. Martin will tackle: To what extent can we expect a major break between Biden’s foreign policy record and Trump? How is Trump likely to tackle the major challenges of our time, be it the war in Ukraine, competition with China, or instability in the Middle East? (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Donald Trump departs from Warsaw, Poland after a 2017 visit. Photo by Andrzej Ilka / Wikimedia Commons.