United States Archives

Analyses

United States

“Every day there’s something new. Donald Trump’s political agenda is totally unpredictable: today it’s the Gaza Strip, tomorrow it will be Ukraine!” Sebastien Boussois, an analyst and researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and at Uqam in Montreal, is one of the most authoritative voices in the French-speaking world on the subject of relations between the West and the Gulf States. In the aftermath of Riyadh’s vehement opposition to the American proposal to empty Gaza and rebuild it, his first comment is unequivocal: “It’s all a show, a complete charade! I think that Saudi Arabia, through the voice of its Foreign Minister, is obliged to reject Trump’s proposal for annexation. But also that there is no lasting or solid agreement in the region as strong as the one between the United States and Saudi Arabia: let us remember, it dates back to 1945, after the end of the Second World War.”

Political Theory, Society
Indian Americans, Christian Nationalists, and Post-Liberal America
Chandra Mallampalli 12 February 2025

At the confirmation hearing of Kash Patel for the position of FBI Director, Senator Thom Tillis introduced him as the son of Indian immigrants from their home state of Gujarat, which he described as a “melting pot” of religions. Patel’s father had fled Uganda during Idi Amin’s expulsion of Indians before ultimately settling the family in New York. Patel displayed his religion and ethnicity alongside his belief in the U.S. Constitution. He saluted his parents by declaring “Jai Sri Krishna,” a greeting that literally means glory or victory to Lord Krishna. If we set aside the grave concerns Democrats raised about Patel’s conspiracy mongering and his ambitions to dismantle the “deep state” by exacting revenge on Trump’s enemies, Patel’s nomination appears to reflect values Democrats would embrace: a commitment to pluralistic democracy, an embrace of racial and cultural differences, and an affirmation of America as a haven for immigrants. But are these the values that drew him to the Trump administration?
International Affairs
Trump’s Old-World Vision Clashes with China’s 21st-Century Rise
Seán Golden 7 February 2025

Trump promised to impose 60 percent tariffs on Chinese trade immediately but has for the moment only imposed 10 percent. Whether this is an attempt to keep face with his voters or a tactical move in a longer-term strategy remains to be seen, as does China’s response and the global consequences. The initial Chinese response has been a cautious tit-for-tat, but the situation is fluid.
International Affairs
For Trump, Is Gaza Merely Real Estate to be Developed?
Hussein Ibish 5 February 2025

Mr Trump seems to regard Palestinians as if they were obstreperous tenants in a New York property that he is looking to develop, who simply are in the way and must be gotten rid of. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the past has waxed eloquent about creating beautiful beachfront property developments in Gaza, as if it were not one of the most squalid and overcrowded areas in the world, populated almost entirely by refugees from what became southern Israel in the late 1940s.
International Affairs, Religion
The Citizenship Battle Dividing Catholic America
Matteo Muzio 22 January 2025

One of the key points of Donald Trump’s new administration program is its commitment to abolish birthright citizenship (jus soli) on his first day as president, as he has declared repeatedly. This would involve using the executive order tool. It didn’t quite happen that way, but it came very close. The new occupant of the White House has signed an order directing federal agencies to stop accepting citizenship applications within thirty days from the children of people entering the country illegally. The text suggests an attempt to get around current laws, as it simply ignores the applications without formally abolishing the right itself.
Political Theory
Modi’s India as a Foretaste of Trump 2.0
Chandra Mallampalli 16 January 2025

January 6 marks the fourth anniversary of an unprecedented attack on the United States Capitol and American democracy. Far more than advancing “the lie” about a stolen 2020 election, the insurrectionists of January 6 presented the world with an alternative understanding of America, one arising from fears of white replacement and steeped in Christian nationalist ideas and imagery. Despite being the only twice impeached U.S. president and a convicted felon, Donald Trump not only won the last election, but also gained majorities in both the Senate and the House and made inroads into Asian, Black, and Latino American communities that typically vote Democrat. These facts should prompt us to reframe January 6 not as a shameful setback for MAGA, but as a catalyst for the movement’s onward march. To what kind of America will Trump 2.0 take us? This is where a comparative lens can be useful.
Political Theory
Traditional Politics are Not Cutting it Anymore: Voters Need Hope
Ivan Krastev 20 December 2024

As someone who is not a student of American politics, I tend to relate American political developments to experiences and places that I am more familiar with. From this perspective, I’ll try to make four simple points. For a foreigner, particularly an Eastern European, who carries a significant political history in their personal biography, one of the most striking things that began to unfold in the United States—long before these most recent elections—was the intense conversation about the “last elections.” Specifically, the question of whether these could be the “last elections” in the sense of the political system being in peril. This debate became especially prominent around 2020, when the idea was first articulated.
Political Theory
American Exceptionalism and the End of Constitutional Patriotism
Seyla Benhabib 20 December 2024
Political Theory
In a Post-Liberal System, What Fills the Void of Solidarity?
James D. Hunter 20 December 2024

The polarization of different common culture is emerging, but tragically, it is not one that fosters unity. Instead, it is a culture of nihilism, driven by a logic of ressentiment—a narrative of injury that seeks revenge through a will to power. This culture’s negations, as Rieff once put it, lead to a nothingness that can be both radical and reactionary at the same time. The challenge of meaningful and effective governance under such conditions is immense, if not impossible. All of this is true in its own right. Add to it the multiple crises of global poverty, rogue states with nuclear weapons, climate change, mass immigration, and an increasingly unstable international order, and the stakes become even higher. My argument is that we are at a moment when the answers to these fundamental questions about the vitality and longevity of liberal democracy can no longer be taken for granted—not because of our polarization, but because we no longer have the cultural resources to navigate what divides us.
Political Theory
Disempowered State, Disempowered Citizens
Michael Sandel 20 December 2024

The discontent afflicting democracy stems from two main sources. One is a pervasive sense of disempowerment—a feeling among many that their voices no longer matter, that they lack a meaningful role in shaping the forces that govern their lives. In the United States, ahead of this election, 85 percent of Americans told pollsters they believed their voices did not matter to those in power. The other is the widespread sense that the moral fabric of community is unraveling—from family to neighborhood to the nation.