Abstract
Serious transatlantic disputes are not something that was introduced by Donald Trump, for example, in the wake of the 2003 Iraq War, but the challenge posed by the Trump administration to the transatlantic security community is unprecedented. Donald Trump’s foreign policy led to a significant breakdown of trust toward the traditional leader within the alliance. The analytical framework of this chapter aims to define and specify the role of trust and mistrust among partners. The empirical part of the chapter examines how Trump’s ‘America First’ doctrine undermines the notion of common transatlantic values and the predictability of US behavior. The increase of mistrust toward the United States translates in hedging strategies and symbolic rejection of US authority by European members within the security community.
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Notes
- 1.
See German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her remarks on the surveillance scandal in 2013: “For future cooperation, trust needs to be rebuilt” (Bundesregierung 2013).
- 2.
In the short run, Trump’s demands might produce the intended outcome of higher European defense spending. However, this strategy damages the level of trust as partners see core principles of the security community undermined. In turn, cooperation might be impeded as the case of Germany illustrates. Here, politicians of the Social Democratic Party use Trump’s lack of trustworthiness to justify that Germany does not fulfill NATO’s 2% spending goal (see FAZ 2018).
- 3.
The lack of consultation, erratic tweets, blatant lies and sudden policy turnarounds also damage the norm of meaningful communication.
- 4.
For example, S. Amdt. 240 to S. 722 or Sec. 1248.a of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (P.L. 115–232).
- 5.
In particular, John Bolton as National Security Advisor and Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State.
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Böller, F. (2020). A Breakdown of Trust: Trump, Europe and the Transatlantic Security Community. In: Oswald, M.T. (eds) Mobilization, Representation, and Responsiveness in the American Democracy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24792-8_16
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