08 08

Since his accession to the US’ presidency, Donald Trump tends to give an asymmetrical direction to the US foreign policy, disturbing the international order.
During electoral campaign, New York
   Since Donald Trump arrived at the oval
office of the most powerful state of the world in January 2017, his implementation of America foreign policy marks a significant rupture with the world diplomatic habits. Indeed, the iconoclast billionaire committed himself to give again to USA all its power and its leadership on the international scene, redefining the analysis of international relations in the light of the classical theory of Realism.
  The theory considers the world like an anarchistic political system where actors have only competing interests and not always friends. While breaking with the neoliberal policy of its predecessor Barack Obama marked by the promotion of free trade and the use of soft power in international relations, the activism of Donald Trump on the international scene gives ahead the primacy of national interest, giving priority to unilateralism and hard power. The US president does not hide its desire to first satisfy the needs for its population at the detriment of the rest of the world and at the detriment of previous signed international agreements by its predecessors in post at the White House. Thus, the relationship between the USA and the chancelleries of the world become increasingly complex since Donald Trump take several discussed decisions and actions: In particular the US withdrawal of the environmental Paris Agreement, its radical manner to manage the crisis of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, the withdrawal of the United States of the Transpacific Partnership Agreement, the desire of improvement of the American-Russian relations (traditionally conflictual relations), the desire to construct a wall at the Mexican border to limit the immigration rate, the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the establishment of an embassy in this city, the exit of the nuclear agreement with Iran, the withdrawal of the human rights council of UNO.
   The actions of DT in the geopolitical sphere have largely upset the international system established and stabilized for several years. This situation forces several international specialists to say that the deployment of the American foreign politics is “of chaotic appearance”, revealing of a certain strategic naivety and a political immaturity on behalf of the tenant of the White House.

                            National interest: leitmotiv of the foreign politics of Trump

   However, although the activism of Trump on the international scene appears lacking of logic and direction due to the unpredictability sense of its decisions, it reveals in filigree the desire of the American billionaire to give a certain lost value to the American leadership with an aim of giving it a great place in the center of all international negotiations in which the USA will have to impose a new agenda to other States. The campaign slogan of president Trump “make America great again” or “America first” are rather significant and revealing of a thought political project, of a coherent and unfailing vision of international relations restructuring itself depending on circumstances. 
   The national interest search by Trump defines this one as a rational actor of the international relations, candidate to achieve his goals even if they are opposed to the objectives of its traditional partners and even if the relative world stability could be review. Thus, the new foreign politics of the US government calls in the concept of alliances/friendly and enemies on the international scene. It enters in contradiction to the foreign politics preached and defended by its predecessors to the oval office which over the years was marked by breathlessness and of a logical foreseeability. In this optics, as a businessman, Trump perceives the international scene as a market made up of several competitors in search of maximum benefits where the other is perceived as a potential obstacle to achieve his final objective and where only competition is the rule and alliances are woven with a precise aim to reach.
  This situation is seems to modify the international geopolitical and geostrategic map. So the perception of the relationship between powers in general will have to undergo a reformulation, because power must be perceived as a dynamic of social relation which its exercise is function of circumstances. Given that, it is a suitable opportunity for a swing of positions for the countries considered as peripherals. The efforts of emancipation should have to feed from the dynamics of the international relations. 
During UN' General Assembly

                              Impact of the foreign politics of Donald Trump in Africa

   This new situation on the international scene should make it possible for African States to re-examine their external affairs and to reevaluate their partnership on the international scene.
It should be noted that, Africa did not constitute a priority for Donald Trump indeed whom has a very limited knowledge of the African continent. However in its speech, in front of several Heads of State of the continent, during a lunch organized in New York in September 2017, in margin of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Trump specified “the exceptional commercial potential” of Africa. This recognition although symbolic, could constitute an opportunity to seize for the African States to reinforce their relations with USA. It will have to do with restructuring the Americano-African relations by stressing more convergence of interests of the African States with respect to its foreign partners.
   Because the African States are not weighing sufficiently on the international scene and having a less incidence on the decisions relating to the priority sectors of globalization such as trade and economy, it returns to African States to reconsider economic integration and commercial on the regional plan. This could be done by the coordination of economic policies and commercial of all African States, the harmonization of rules and regulation of law of trade, the revision of the taxation rules and customs supporting the export and the importation of products and services, the promotion of public-private partnership at the national, sub regional and regional level, the harmonization of currency. The new policy of Trump offers an opportunity to Africa of being separated of a system of dependence globalized, structured and determined mainly by the Westerners. The fact for the Trump’s government of calling in question several trade agreements leaves a door half-opened to the African leaders to redefine their policies of management of the external business. In this logic, it appears necessary for African to work out strategies of extraversion, mobilize resources for autocentric development strategies by exploiting intelligently the actual skimped relation between USA and UE, the conflictual sino-American relation which is carried out on all the zones of interest of the world, and where the lines move in the Russo-American and USA-North Korea relations.
   Africa have to benefit from the uncertainty which increases on international relations created by the not very orthodox foreign politics of Donald Trump, It has to draw his pinfrom the game which is done, at least the time of one or two American presidential mandates. Even though it remains crucial and necessary to solve the main problem of democracy, populism and the nepotism which constitute true obstacles of Africa development.
By Tchiengue

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