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From the Obama doctrine to America first : the erosion of the Washington consensus on grand strategy
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Löfflmann, Georg (2020) From the Obama doctrine to America first : the erosion of the Washington consensus on grand strategy. International Politics, 57 . pp. 588-605. doi:10.1057/s41311-019-00172-0
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41311-019-00172-0
Abstract
This article explores the social construction of American grand strategy as nexus of identity and national security. The article first highlights how the identity construct of American exceptionalism has underwritten a grand strategy of global leadership and military interventionism since the end of the Cold War, constituting liberal hegemony as dominant position within the bipartisan US foreign policy establishment. The article then explores the political impact of counter-hegemonic discourses of restraint and offshore balancing under the Obama presidency. It argues that in ‘leading from behind’ the Obama Doctrine represented a moderate intra-elite challenge to the status quo. Obama’s use of exceptionalist rhetoric to legitimate restraint simultaneously exposed the political limits of this strategic paradigm shift, which oscillated between continuity and change. Finally, the article examines Trump’s ‘America First’ stance, concluding that its combination of nationalism, nativism, and protectionism has resulted in the erosion of the Washington consensus on liberal hegemony.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | J Political Science > JZ International relations | ||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Foreign relations -- United States, Exceptionalism -- Political aspects -- United States, Obama, Barack, Trump, Donald, 1946- | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | International Politics | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 1384-5748 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | August 2020 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 57 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 588-605 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1057/s41311-019-00172-0 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in International Politics. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Löfflmann, G. Int Polit (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-019-00172-0 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-019-00172-0 | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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