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Back to Issue: No.6, 2025

Tariff diplomacy and sanctions policy of the Trump administration: Economic nationalism as a foreign policy tool

Volodymyr Yurchenko

Abstract

The study aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the transformations in the foreign policy of the United States of America during the presidency of Donald Trump, with an emphasis on the role of trade and sanctions instruments in the implementation of foreign policy strategy. The methodological basis of the study was an interdisciplinary approach that combined comparative conceptual analysis, content analysis of official documents, and legal analysis of the Trump administration's trade and sanctions mechanisms. To assess the impact of tariff and sanctions policies on international relations and the global economy, cases from China, Iran, Ukraine, Canada, India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia were analysed. The results of the study showed that the foreign policy of the United States of America in 2017-2021 was characterised by a shift towards economic nationalism, protectionism and unilateral actions. Tariff policy was used as an instrument of coercive diplomacy to achieve trade concessions, while having a controversial impact on the domestic economy of the United States and global markets. The study established that the Trump administration's sanctions policy functioned as part of a comprehensive foreign policy management strategy, combined with military aid, trade restrictions and investment controls, and its application was primarily determined by geopolitical interests. The study proved that sanctions often did not lead to a change in the behaviour of target states but instead stimulated the convergence of alternative centres of power and the development of mechanisms to circumvent restrictions. The sanctions diplomacy of the United States of America during the period in question demonstrated limited coercive effectiveness and contributed to the fragmentation of the international system and the weakening of multilateral formats of global regulation. The practical significance of the results is determined by the possibility of their use to further analyse modern trends in global development, as well as to improve and adapt international cooperation mechanisms in the context of the spread of economic nationalism and protectionism

Keywords

protectionism; trade wars; bilateral cooperation; international tensions; multipolar world order; national security

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Suggested citation

Yurchenko, V. (2025). Tariff diplomacy and sanctions policy of the Trump administration: Economic nationalism as a foreign policy tool. Foreign Affairs, 35(6), 65-76. https://doi.org/10.59214/ua.fa/6.2025.65
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