The foreign policy and ethos of recent presidents

President Trump
2016-2020
Hawkish
Unilateralism
Placed American interest and American nationalism at the heart of his foreign policy, alongside his dislike of tying the US into international agreements. These agreements were seen by Trump as a limit on US sovereignty and self-interest. The hawk is the symbol of aggression in foreign policy in contrast with the dove which represents peace.
He quickly left the Paris agreement and made critical remarks about NATO, threatening to leave the alliance. He also cancelled the Iran agreement and launched bombing raids on a Syrian airbase and ordered the assassination of Qalem Soleimani, an Iranian military general. Trump ordered 2,243 drone strikes in his first 2 years of office and issued an executive order saying that the government was no longer required to report these drone strikes to the public

President Biden
2020-2024
Diplomacy and democracy
Began his presidency stressing the importance of international cooperation to make the US stronger in the world, in contrast to Trump’s more aggressive and unilateral approach. Biden talked of the need for ‘global cooperation to face existential threat’ of an environmental destruction and his desire to ‘unite democratic values with our diplomatic leadership’.
One of Biden’s first acts as president was to reengage with other countries by signing the Paris Agreement, thereby committing the US to meeting internationally agreed standards to reduce CO2 emissions.
Whilst he has strengthened diplomatic ties he has also, like all recent presidents, ordered extensive airstrikes. In 2022 he ordered drone strikes that killed the leader of the Islamic state in Syria. Biden honoured the agreement between Trump administration and the Taliban in Afghanistan to withdraw troops, within 14 months of the 2020 agreement. Biden signalled a contrast with Clinton and Bush’s foreign policy when he said that the era of major military operations to remake other countries is over. The removal of troops was met with major criticism after the Taliban took control of the Afghanistan capital just 11 days after the US withdrawal.