A Comparison of Mexico-US Relations During the Presidencies of Obama and Trump

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Corresponding author: PhD student of International Relations, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Master's student of Regional Studies, Allameh Tabataba'i University

Abstract

In recent decades, Mexico-US relations have been affected by three factors, being, trade, illegal immigration, and security issues such as drug trafficking, guns, and other transnational crimes. However, these relations have undergone different complications in various historical periods. One of the influential factors in the relationship between the two countries is the emergence of political leaders with different ideas and views. From this perspective, this study attempts to examine the attributes of the relationship between Mexico and the United States during the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. By examining the three areas of economics, immigration and security the concept has been hypothesized that under the Obama administration, the Mexican government's willingness to strengthen economic ties and focus on a series of issues, including; helping to solve the migration crisis and securing the two countries' borders, had improved, while on the other hand, Trump recognized Mexico as the source for violent crimes, illegal immigration, and the main cause for the loss of employment opportunities in the United States. During this period, Mexican-American relations faced serious challenges. This research is based on a descriptive-analytical approach, uses a comparative research method, and relies on library-based data collection. The findings show that Obama sought to boost relative prosperity in Mexico by strengthening bilateral economic ties, thereby improving security and immigration crises, but Trump sought economic concessions in favor of the United States and tackled security and immigration crises with solutions such as walling and increasing border patrols.

Keywords

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References

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American Strategic Studies
Volume 2, Issue 2 - Serial Number 6
September 2022
Pages 121-149

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History

  • Receive Date: 08 May 2022
  • Revise Date: 19 July 2022
  • Accept Date: 23 July 2022

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