American Populism And Its Impact On Trump's Diplomacy

In recent years,populism has frequently erupted in the core nations of Western liberal democracies,which has attracted great attention of scholars and decision makers at home and abroad.The core issue of this thesis is how the popularization of American domestic politics affects the transformation diplomacy in the Trump Administration.The main focus of this research is the specific paths through which the American foreign policy is influenced by its domestic politics.Populism originally sprouted from the idea of "modern democratic politics" of the French Revolution and the "socialist ideal" of the Russian Revolution.It refers to the dissatisfaction and resistance of the marginalized or being marginalized majority to the core elite class in the existing social structure.It has both value and tool characteristics.In the special period of social transformation,economic inequality crisis,government legitimacy crisis and identity crisis are the main causes of populism.In American history,populism is relatively rare,but it does exist throughout the whole experience of American politics.Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 U.S.Presidential Election marked a milestone in the populism history of the American.Domestic structural crises such as national identity crisis,economic inequality crisis and efficiency crisis of the democratic governance,are the general factors that induced the American populism.The special evolution of American political and ideological traditions and the social trends of thought,together with the boost of the new media wave,are the special reason for the simultaneous outbreak of American right and left populism.Populism in the United States is promoting the transformation of diplomacy in the Trump Administration by reshaping the national identity,impacting the constitutional culture,and influencing the social values.Under the influence of populist politics,the Trump administration's foreign policy has fundamentally deviated from the values that the United States has formed since World War II,with the alliance system,international mechanisms,and liberal norms as its core.The transformation of diplomacy in Trump Administration poses serious challenges to the liberal elements of the existing international order,such as the "rule" governance concept,the "open" principle and the "democracy" value.At the same time,it has had profound impacts on the mode of interaction between the most important nation actors in the current international system(the United States and China),and has promoted the increasingly fierce strategic competition between the United States and China.However,liberalism still has strong social foundations and restraining effects on populism so that it does not fundamentally subvert the current international order.In addition,the strategic competition between the United States and China is essentially a domestic-integrating competition between the two countries,which contains the characteristics of asymmetry,non-zero-sum and non-confrontational.