T. Hryshchenko, PhD in History, Associate Professor
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2017.132.1.02
US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2016 AND THE AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY STRATEGY
Presidential campaign 2016, given its degree of mutual mistrust and major candidates' profiles, was among the most unusual in the American history. However both H. Clinton and D. Trump managed to formulate quite lucidly their approaches to the national foreign policy strategy. Despite widely spread belief in incompatibility of the platforms of the two leaders competing for the Oval Office, they had a lot of common in their strategic perspectives. Both vehemently argued in favor of America's active world role and shared opinion about the importance of global developments for the wellbeing of common Americans. On the other hand real differences between the strategic paradigms of the two leaders did have place. H. Clinton represented the worldview rooted mainly in her husband's presidential foreign policy, it could be categorized as more proactive version of B. Obama's liberal globalism. On his part D. Trump put forward set of messages that appeared to be a new version of the long standing US global strategy made adaptable to the changed American public moods and the realities of the early 21st century world. Some of his messages sounded like remake of old themes harking back to the times between two World Wars. Yet not clear enough Republican candidate's blueprint contained ideas which could lead to one of the most unconventional and stylistically innovative, if not exotic, presidential international strategies ever known in the American history. Immediate reaction to the election results from Z. Brzezinski and H. Kissinger – two major national authorities in the field of international strategy -- supported the presumption about the expectable differences between D. Trump's electoral rhetoric and his steering of the American foreign policy from the White House. However presidential race 2016 left more questions open than answered when the forthcoming national international strategy is concerned. Thus the initial period of D. Trump presidency had all chances to become the time of prolonged and uneasy efforts of America to make its world strategy compatible with the increasingly complex world.
Key words: US foreign policy, international strategy, H. Clinton, D. Trump, Z. Brzezinski, H. Kissinger.
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