Presidential elections in the United States: implications for international and European security

• Main Author: O. S. Vonsovych
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Publishing House "Grani" 2016-10-01
• Series: Granì
• Subjects: виклики; загрози; співробітництво; НАТО; Російська Федерація; Європейський Союз
• Online Access: https://grani.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/837

The consequences for international and European security after the presidential elections in the United States of America have been investigated. We should say that these elections in the United States became one of the most controversial and unpredictable in the history of this country. New accents in foreign and internal policy of D. Trump are focused on the amplification of national component and strengthening of America’s national security. Moreover, in the future the United States does not intend to provide international and European security solely: now it is the task for the countries that are members of such organizations as NATO, OSCE and EU. According to a new president, NATO’s role in the fight against modern challenges and threats to international security should be based on a new mechanism, which involves the participation of all countries, not just the United States. It happens due to the fact that the United States does not intend to pay much attention to external issues in the future, preferring to focus more on solving a number of internal ones. As to the question of terrorism combating, D. Trump has a more consolidated position that in future The Unites States are going to lead the fight against the Islamic State together with Russia and Syria. In accordance with this, certain kind of support of Russian plans will go from the US although this is not about a full convergence. D. Trump’s statements about the fact that European security must be self-sufficient are pushing European countries to the creation of European armed forces. In accordance with this, it has been suggested to introduce autonomy in Europe from the United States in the context of security. Moreover, European countries should make contributions to the NATO budget in order to maintain the international security. This double burden is now unbearable for European countries and will unlikely have a positive impact on European security. Consequently, Europe must either enhance their military and defense components due to its material and technical resources or to search for other alternatives. In conclusion it should be noted that the full implementation of D. Trump’s plans for international and European security will depend on how the declared initiatives will correspond to his real actions. Perhaps this would require more than a year, but now the world and the European community must be ready for serious structural and geopolitical changes. The presence of a number of acute problems makes the role of the United States in the process of ensuring international and European security hardly predictable.