Transatlantic Solidarity in the Era of D.Trump: EU`s Place and Role in the American Foreign Policy Strategy

The US and the EU are major strategic allies and transatlantic relations as the interaction between the two most powerful political and economic leaders of the world determines a significant area of world politics and its development vectors. However, the presidency of D.Trump caused a vigorous debate about the erosion of transatlantic solidarity. In this thesis, we have analyzed the evolution of the transatlantic relationship in the XXI century, determined the reasons for its degradation, and evaluated the role of Trump Administration on the changing American foreign policy strategy towards Europe. As a result, we have discovered that Trump’s politics of retrenchment from the EU is coherent and consistent with the previous presidencies. So, D. Trump did not cause significant changes in the already emerged trend. Having analyzed political and economic aspects of US-EU relations under the incumbent, we have come to a conclusion about the ongoing erosion of the transatlantic solidarity and the necessity of both actors to adjust to the new systemic conditions. The analysis of the American foreign policy strategy was based on the neoclassical realism theory, which allowed us to examine the unit-level factors influencing the transformation of the US policy towards the EU.