Transregionalism in US Foreign Policy: Comparative Analysis of TPP and TTIP Geopolitics

Abstract

The decision of US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership and the sluggish negotiations on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership have fueled the debate on the future trajectories of American foreign policy in its two traditionally strategic geographic avenues – Asia Pacifi c and North Atlantic. The article analyzes the geo-political and geo-economic interests, which were pursued by the Obama administration and underlie TPP and TTIP initiatives, and suggests the outcomes of President Trump’s decision as well as the possible alternatives.Given the strategic US interests, its global positioning and the current trends of world politics, Donald Trump’s policy can be regarded as a reconsideration of the above-mentioned projects on the basis of bilateral negotiations and widening network of bilateral economic and trade agreements, rather than the policy of isolationism. In other words, it might be a policy of returning to a hub-and-spoke system of trade zones developed in the second half of the XX century. However, still emerging and competing transregional projects reduce the effectiveness of bilateralism for domestic development of states involved and reduce the international infl uence of outsiders, and that can jeopardize the US leadership.

Keywords

• transregionalism
• ttp
• ttip
• usa
• china
• russia
• eu
• regionalism
• asia-pacifi c region