Trump Energy Diplomacy

Shokri Kalehsar, Omid

By 2016 and during the presidential campaign Trump made it noticeably clear that his administration, if elected, would pursue a global dominance strategy that is quite different from the strategy pursued by previous presidents; they always talked about energy independence, energy self-sufficiency. But with Trump, a very sharp break is noticeable; he talked about global energy dominance. Exporting energy to increase relations with neighboring countries and US allies has been the focus of the Obama and Trump administrations, and this policy will be one of the basic principles of US foreign policy in the next US administration. Meanwhile, sanctions on the energy industry of different countries have also played an important role in the foreign policy of the Trump administration. During Trump’s presidency, the country had major foreign policy problems with China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia The US withdrawal from JCPOA and the imposition of sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, followed by a policy of maximum pressure on it, has been one of the key points of the Trump administration’s foreign policy. US energy independence has provided the country with the opportunity to increase energy exports to the global energy market and has even allowed the US government to use energy sanctions against major energy-producing countries. A major development in the energy market during the Trump administration was the spread of covid-19 and oil price decline. Oil prices were one of the most important challenges in US energy policy under Trump, although Trump worked hard to minimize the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak and falling oil prices on the US economy and US shale.