Rıse of Isolationism in the USA Foreign Policy and Implications for NATO

NATO proved its resilience by adopting transformative policies that enabled it to adapt multiple security challenges arising in aftermath of the dissolution of the communist bloc. In the first two decades of the post-Cold War era, the Alliance was able to maintain its solidarity and cohesion during the crisis in the Balkans and the war on terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, the USA declared ‘pivot to Asia' strategy in response to China's rise against the USA's supremacy in the World leadership; and Russia was reemerging more assertively first in Crimea, and later in Syria. Amid changes taking place in the international environment, the foreign policy shift set forth by the Trump administration in favor of isolationism rather than internationalism recommenced the discussions regarding the relevance of NATO. In this sense, the study investigates how the new foreign policy approach of the USA administration could affect the future of NATO. In the first part, isolationist aspects of the USA policy is analyzed within the historical and contemporary contexts. In the second part, the study explores the implications of the new isolationist policy of the USA for the future of NATO. In the conclusion part, the findings of the study have been presented. The study has identified that the USA's recent isolationist policy degrades sentiment of solidarity in NATO, strengthens proponents of developing autonomous Europe defense capability, encourages illiberal-authoritarian trend among transatlantic countries, paves the way for the emergence of power contestation with implications of an arms race and nuclear proliferation, opens space for new alignments.