American Grand Strategy from Obama to Trump

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Zeno Leoni

   Pages 1-6

3. A Marxist Theory of International Relations

   • Zeno Leoni

   Pages 7-48

4. American Grand Strategy and Its Contradictions

   • Zeno Leoni

   Pages 49-88

5. A Post-American Geopolitical World Order: Uneven Development and the Shifting Balance of Power

   • Zeno Leoni

   Pages 89-130

6. Obama’s Grand Strategy: Between Off-Shore Balancing and the ‘Pivot to Asia’

   • Zeno Leoni

   Pages 131-194

7. Trump’s Grand Strategy: The Obama Doctrine Through the Lens of America First

   • Zeno Leoni

   Pages 195-258

8. Conclusion

   • Zeno Leoni

   Pages 259-262

9. Back Matter

   Pages 263-266

   PDF

This book maintains that the theory of imperialism should incorporate the concept of an “operational code” of political elites to account for agencies’ actions. This concept would explain the strategic continuity and tactical change in US grand strategy from Obama to Trump. While both presidents pursued a strategy of off-shore balancing, their competing worldviews led to tangible differences in the way they sought to restore American power after Bush and to contain the rise of China. This book offers an important contribution after the departure of Bush concluded the 21st century debate on imperialism, at a time when an increasingly post-American world order has undermined the “end of the state” thesis. Indeed, over the last twelve years US grand strategy has emphasized inter-state competition rather than the annihilation of rogue regimes. These events require renewed efforts for the theory of imperialism to contribute to Globalisation Theory at this crucial historical junction.

• US Grand Strategy
• Imperialism
• Grand Strategy
• Hegemony
• US-China Relations
• Geopolitics
• Geopolitical Rivalries
• Obama
• Trump
• International Relations
• Bush Presidency
• Marxism
• Gramsci
• International Relations Theory
• Geoeconomics
• Capitalist Imperialism
• Foreign Policy
• Security Studies
• Defence Studies
• Rosenau

“In the aftermath of the Cold War there was much talk of a unipolar world in which interstate rivalry and any hint of prior imperialism had mutated into globalism. Globalization was to be the great leveler. As a result, the older language of a global capitalism imbricated in interstate competition described by the term imperialism was seen as old hat. Zeno Leoni shows persuasively that across both the Obama and Trump administrations US governments have had to own up to a world in which inter-imperial rivalry has made a major comeback. This may be a different variety from that which prevailed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, not least because of much greater role today of global and transnational capital, but it does require clear acknowledgment that with the rise of China a new world order is in the making.”  

—John Agnew, Distinguished Professor, UCLA, USA, and author of Hegemony: The New Shape of Global Power (2005)

“This book provides an authoritative analysis, grounded in critical Marxist IR theory, of US grand strategy, its contradictions and its rivalry challenge. It will no doubt become a benchmark and a valuable literature for future studies of US grand strategy in connection with the phenomenon of Trumpism and US-China competition.”

—Li Xing, Professor, Aalborg University, Denmark

• Defence Studies Department, King's College London, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Swindon, UK

  Zeno Leoni

Zeno Leoni is a Teaching Fellow in “Challenges to the International Order” at the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London, UK, and the Defence Academy of the UK. He is affiliated with the Lau China Institute at King’s College London and currently writes on the new Cold War between the US and China.

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