Description
This paper considers the legacy of Trumpian populism in American foreign policy by examining the impact of the populist ‘rupture’ on the US foreign policy establishment. To do this, the paper analyses elite discourse about populism in the Washington think-tank community. Building on recent studies in political science, it asks whether intellectual debates on American foreign policy are moving in a post-populist direction, or whether they are defined more acutely by an anti-populist reaction to Trump’s rhetoric, style and agenda. In assessing the lasting effects of Trumpian populism, the paper distinguishes between the policy outcomes of the Trump administration in the international arena and the politics of the intellectual debate surrounding US statecraft and grand strategy. It argues that, while certain aspects of populism have been absorbed into the attempt to construct a post-Trump ‘restoration’, a deep hostility toward populism is increasingly constitutive of the elite consensus on US power and strategy in international politics.
