DONALD TRUMP ON SETTING THE PRICE FOR THE U.S. FOREIGN DEFENCE POLICY – TRACING BACK THE OPINIONS OF AN ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
Abstract
Abstract: Since 1987, Donald Trump has constantly considered in a critical manner the U.S. foreign defence policy
that he understood as the use of the U.S. military for advancing the interests of foreign states. In the context of the 1988,
2000, 2012 and 2016 election campaigns for the U.S. presidency, he strongly argued that this military support should not
be provided for free but only in exchange for a fair price to be paid by the states which benefit from it. This paper points out
that Trump`s position on the exact structure of this price is less clear and that three contrasting views on this issue could plausibly be attributed to him, with the last two ones being more prominent and explicit: firstly, the price includes both the costs for employing the U.S. military and a mark-up, secondly, the price covers only the costs for employing the U.S. military and finally, the price is made up exclusively from a share of the costs for modernising the U.S. military. A possible way of integrating all three views into the U.S. foreign defence policy is also suggested by this paper which concludes that Trump’s
perspective on this policy is complex and thus resistant to a simple haracterization.
Keywords: Donald Trump; U.S. foreign defence policy; price of defence; cost of defence; U.S. military; U.S.
presidential elections.
References
D`Antonio Michael, Never Enough. Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, New York, St. Martin`s Press, 2015.
Trump Donald and Shiflett Dave, The America We Deserve, Los Angeles, Renaissance Books, 2000.
Trump Donald, Time to Get Tough: Making America # 1 Again, Washington D.C. Regnery Publishing, 2011.
Trump Donald, Crippled America. How to Make America Great Again, New York, Threshold Editions, 2015.
Wilson Isaiah III and Forest, James J.F., Introduction to the Politics of Defence Policy in Isaiah Wilson III, James J.F. Forest (eds.),
Handbook of Defence Police, International and Comparative Perspectives, London, New York, Routledge, 2008.
Speeches
Donald Trump’s Presidential Announcement Speech, 16.06.2015.
Donald J. Trump, Foreign Policy Speech, 27.04.201.
Interviews
Donald Trump, Expounds on His Foreign Policy Views, interview with New York Times from 26.03.2016.
Donald Trump on NATO, Turkey’s Coup Attempt and the World, interview with New York Times from 21.07.2016.
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