Between a rock and a hard place: Trump’s half-realist, half-mercantilist foreign policy in the Middle East

Abstract

American foreign policy under President Trump in the Middle East and North Africa has been a policy rollercoaster, sometimes in line of continuity with policies adopted by the previous administration, sometimes with violent breaks from the past, sometimes apparently brought about by material interest calculations, other times supposedly driven by personal politics and symbolic gestures. All this has happened without a clearcut grand strategy, but rather though ad hoc decisions and policy U-turns, and, in bureaucratic politics’ terms, with different parts of the administration contradicting one another. It represents a unique combination of mercantilism, realism, personalized politics which, most remarkably, is likely to be shaped by structural and contextual factors more than strategic and political intentions.