The Global Trend of De-Americanization and Trump’s Strategic Response to It (2017–2021)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 M.A. in Regional Studies–North America, Department of World Studies, Shahid Sadr Institute of Civilizational Studies, Imam Hossein Comprehensive University, Tehran, Iran

2 Corresponding author: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty and Institute of Cultural and Social Sciences, Imam Hossein Comprehensive University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Following the end of the Second World War, the United States was able, by relying on its economic, military, and institutional power, to construct a liberal order that for several decades constituted the principal framework of global interactions. Nevertheless, developments in recent decades—including the rise of China and Russia, structural crises in the West, and internal challenges within the United States—have indicated that the U.S.-centered order is undergoing relative decline, even though the United States is unlikely to relinquish its global leadership role without resistance. Accordingly, the central question of this study is: how did the United States respond, during Trump’s first presidential term (2017–2021), to the transition toward a post-American order, and what effects did these responses have on America’s hegemonic position? Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach and employing documentary research, this study examines the historical and theoretical trajectory of the decline of the liberal order, the characteristics of a post-American order, and, ultimately, Trump’s measures in response to this trend and their consequences. The findings indicate that U.S. foreign policy during Trump’s first term did not take shape within the framework of restoring liberal global leadership; rather, it was formulated within a pattern of defensive hegemony. Within this framework, the Trump administration sought to contain the process of de-Americanization and prevent the consolidation of such an order by employing instruments of hard power and geoeconomic statecraft, including military build-up, tariff wars, extraterritorial sanctions, and coercive diplomacy. However, owing to unilateralism, the weakening of multilateral institutions, and the erosion of allies’ trust, these policies not only failed to halt the trend of de-Americanization, but also accelerated the multipolarization of the international system and reduced the hegemonic legitimacy of the United States.

Keywords

References

Acharya, A. (2018). The End of American World Order. Polity Press.
Allison, G. (2020). The new spheres of influence. Foreign Affairs, 99(2), 10–22
Bagheri Dolatabadi, A. (2025). U.S. decline, China's rise, technology, soft power, economy, artificial intelligence. American Strategic Studies, 4(4), 69-105. doi: 10.47176/asr.2025.1270. [In Persian]
Bigdeli,M. R. , Dehganei Firouzabadi,S. J. , Barzegar,K. and Chegnizadeh,G. (2023). Decline of the liberal international order from the perspective of the theoretical approaches of the School of liberalism. Journal of Political Knowledge, 19(2), 349-374. doi: 10.30497/pkn.2023.244333.3052. [In Persian]
Blankenship, B., & Denison, A. (2019). Rethinking the liberal international order: Great power competition and U.S. strategy. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Brands, H. (2018). American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump. Brookings Institution Press
Brands, H., & Edel, C. (2019). The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order. Yale University Press
  Congressional Budget Office. (2019). Long-Term Implications of the 2019 Future Years Defense Program
Dehshiri,M R . (2019). The Fall of U.S. Soft Power: Causes and Consequences. Soft power Studies, 8(2), 35-68. [In Persian]
Drezner, D. W. (2014). The System Worked: How the World Stopped Another Great Depression. Oxford University Press
Farrell, H., & Newman, A. (2023). Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy
Fukuyama, F. (2018). Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Haas, R. (2021). The world in disarray (M. Haghighatkhah, Trans.). Tehran: Ney Publishing. [In Persian]
Haass, R. (2020). The killing of Qasem Soleimani was a strategic mistake. Foreign Affairs
Haass, R. N. (2008). The Age of Nonpolarity: What Will Follow U.S. Dominance. Foreign Affairs, 87(3), 44–56
Haass, R. N. (2019). How a world order ends: And what comes in its wake. Foreign Affairs, 98(1)
Huntington, S. P. (2004). Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity. Simon & Schuster
Ikenberry, G.J. (2011). The future of the liberal world order: Internationalism after America (D. Pournazar, Trans.). Regional Studies, Israel Studies–America Studies, 42–43, 141–156. [In Persian]
Ikenberry, G.J. (2011). Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order. Princeton University Press.
Ikenberry, G. J. (2020). The next liberal order. Foreign Affairs, 99(4), 133–142
Ikenberry, G. John. (2023). The End of the Liberal International Order
Judis, J. B. (2018). The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt Against Globalization. Columbia Global Reports
Karampouriy, M., & Eslami, M. (2023). The Impact of the US Power Cycle on the World Order. American Strategic Studies, 3(1), 11-45. doi: 10.27834743/ASS.2212.1133.1. [In Persian]
Kaufman, R. G. (2020). Dangerous Doctrine: How Trump's America First Threatens the Future of Liberal Democracy. University Press of Kentucky.
Layne, C. (2012). The End of Pax Americana: How Western Decline Became Inevitable. The Atlantic.
Leonard, M. (2023). China Is Ready for a Disorderly World, but America Is Not. Foreign Affairs, 102(5).
McDougall, W. A. (2019). “The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy: How America’s Civil Religion Betrayed the National Interest.” Yale University Press
Mearsheimer, J. J. (2020). The great delusion: Liberal dreams and international realities (M. Barati, Trans.). Tehran: Ney Publishing. [In Persian]
Mearsheimer, J. J. (2019). The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities. Yale University Press
Motahari, Z. (2024). Theorizing "Exceptionalism" within the 'Middle Ground' Approach of IR Theories. American Strategic Studies, 4(2), 37-61. doi: 10.47176/asr.2024.1220. [In Persian]
Nye, J. S. (2021). Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump. Oxford University Press.
Pirmohammadi, S., & Jafari, A.A. (2024). American international order in the period of historical transition; Revival of the empire in the context of geopolitics. American Strategic Studies, 4(1), 47-76. doi: 10.47176/asr.2024.1192. [In Persian]
Putnam, R.D. (2020). The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Simon & Schuster
Rajaie, H. (2025). The Foreign Policy of Trump's First Administration: The Republican Turnaway from Internationalism. American Strategic Studies, 4(4), 35-68. doi: 10.47176/asr.2025.1275. [In Persian]
Rodrik, D., & Walt, S. (2024). How to build a new world order. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, (40).
Rosen, S. P. (2018). “Is There an American Civilization?” The National Interest, 153(Spring), 16–25
Shambaugh, D. (2013). China Goes Global: The Partial Power. Oxford University Press
Snyder, T. (2018). The road to unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America. Tim Duggan Books
Stuenkel, O. (2015). Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers Are Remaking Global Order. Polity Press
Talebi,A , Piri, H I M and Jalali Rad,M S . (2023). Examining the components of the decline of America's soft power. Soft power Studies, 13(2), 57-78. [In Persian]
Tooze, A. (2021). Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy
Trump, D. J. (2018, September 25). Address to the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. United Nations. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2018/09/mil-180925-unnews04.htm
Trump, D. J. (2018, September 25). Remarks at the United Nations General Assembly. Speech presented at the 73rd session of the UNGA, New York, NY.
U.S. Department of the Treasury. (2020). Agency Financial Report: Fiscal Year 2020. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved from https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/266/Treasury-FY-2020-AFR.pdf
U.S. Department of the Treasury. (2020). CFIUS laws and guidance: Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) and implementingregulations.https://home.treasury.gov/policyissues/international/the-committee-on-foreign-investment-in-the-united-states-cfius/cfius legislation
  U.S. Trade Representative. (2020). Economic Impact of Section 301 Tariffs on China. Washington, D.C
Walt, S. M. (2018). The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Waltz, K. N. (2000). Structural Realism after the Cold War. International Security, 25(1), 5–41
Zakaria, F. (2011). The Post-American World. W. W. Norton & Company.
Zhao, A.S. (2022). Power transition and the dynamics of U.S.-China competition. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 23(2), 56–67.
American Strategic Studies
Volume 5, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
Serial number 20 - Winter 2026
June 2026
Pages 11-39

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 14 December 2025
  • Revise Date: 08 June 2026
  • Accept Date: 22 May 2026
  • Publish Date: 08 June 2026

Share

How to cite

Statistics