Donald Trump and the Arab World: The Disrupter in Chief faces the Status Quo*

In: Sicherheit & Frieden, Band 38, Heft 2, S. 77-82

Abstract

For the last fifty years, every US Presidency has come to be defined by momentous events in the Arab world. This pattern also applies to Donald Trump, whose approach to the region is shaped by the preference for reduced military exposure and a break with his predecessor's policies as well as a general deference and even admiration for authoritarian personalities and systems. The result has been a policy mishmash which offers disruption where continuity is required and continuity where disruption is needed. Trump's policies are thus likely to exacerbate the region's security crises at the inter-state and intra-state levels.