ABSTRACT
President Trump’s one term ended in the election of 2020, culminating a year of severe crises for the world. U.S. engagement in finding solutions to problems facing the international community would be foiled, in part, by the president’s “America First” policy. The administration’s withdrawal from international commitments, and his hostility to the UN, reflected a sentiment shared by many Americans. It may have been the culmination of a trend observable over the previous two decades. Still, the impact of ending participation in international trade agreements, in the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran Nuclear Agreement, in arms control measures, and in UN organizations such as UNESCO, UNRWA, the Human Rights Council, and the WHO, made stark an accelerated disengagement with the world. Disengagement was amplified by the president’s preference for conducting diplomacy alone, outside conventional channels of diplomatic practice and international norms. His solo personal diplomacy in the Middle East and with North Korea, while completely ignoring the UN and the international community, did not, in the end, seem to bring success. Deteriorating relations with China, exacerbated by a muscular tariff policy and a dispute over the coronavirus pandemic, left the two powerful countries in a precarious cold war by the end of Mr. Trump’s term.
