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Suurd, Daniek (2021)

Speechless? A qualitative narrative analysis of the belief-systems of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and American foreign-policy towards China

Master thesis | Political Science (MSc)
In a quickly globalizing world, it is important to understand how foreign-policy takes shape. Using a constructivist perspective, this thesis researches the relationship between foreign-policy and individual decision-makers. To do so, this thesis composes the belief-systems of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and provides an overview of their administration’s foreign-policy towards China. Thereby it uncovers the relationship between the two phenomena. The belief-systems are composed though qualitative narrative analysis of speeches, delivered by the men throughout their time as president. The overview of American foreign policy towards China is composed though an inductive analysis of official foreign-policy documents. My research findings indicate that, for this specific case, there is indeed a relationship between the belief-systems of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and their administration’s foreign-policy towards China. Although the nature of this research does not allow for...Show moreIn a quickly globalizing world, it is important to understand how foreign-policy takes shape. Using a constructivist perspective, this thesis researches the relationship between foreign-policy and individual decision-makers. To do so, this thesis composes the belief-systems of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and provides an overview of their administration’s foreign-policy towards China. Thereby it uncovers the relationship between the two phenomena. The belief-systems are composed though qualitative narrative analysis of speeches, delivered by the men throughout their time as president. The overview of American foreign policy towards China is composed though an inductive analysis of official foreign-policy documents. My research findings indicate that, for this specific case, there is indeed a relationship between the belief-systems of Barack Obama and Donald Trump and their administration’s foreign-policy towards China. Although the nature of this research does not allow for generalization, this thesis proves that the relationship between belief-systems and foreign-policy is important to research.Show less
Author
Suurd, Daniek
Faculty
Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences
Specialisation
International Organisation
Supervisors

Beck, F. M.
Van Meegdenburg, H.

ECTS Credits
20
Language
en