Long read: Trump's electoral rhetoric has become self-interested, nativist policy

In 2016, Donald Trump unexpectedly won the White House following an anti-elite populist election campaign which emphasised an exceptionalist and nativist view of America’s place in the world. Reviewing the president’s tweets and speeches in the lead up to the 2018 midterm elections, Corina Lacatus finds that Trump’s far-right populist rhetoric now links closely with his administration’s policies, including pursuing a harder, more self-interested line on immigration, US international commitments and trade relationships

For Donald Trump, campaigning by Twitter limited the public's access to his policy positions and strategies

Each day, much of the political world wakes up and asks "What has Donald Trump tweeted now?" While Trump's use of Twitter defines his presidency, it was also integral to his 2016 election campaign. Cora Lacatus analysed more than 47,000 tweets and over 500 press releases from Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders from the 2016 election campaign. She finds that Clinton was largely concerned with issues of equality, Sanders was an anti-establishment figure, and that Trump limited his own press releases, curtailing the public’s access to his policies in favor of using Twitter to attack opponent and to push his “America First” rhetoric

Introduction to the special issue: elections, rhetoric and American foreign policy in the age of Donald Trump

This introduction presents the special issue’s conceptual and empirical starting points and situates the special issue’s intended contributions. It does so by reviewing extant scholarship on electoral rhetoric and foreign policy and by teasing out several possible linkages between elections, rhetoric and foreign policy. It also discusses how each contribution to the special issue seeks to illuminate causal mechanisms at work in these linkages. Finally, it posits that these linkages are crucial to examining the changes brought about by Trump’s election and his foreign policy rhetoric

Eight centuries on from Magna Carta, upholding the rule of law remains a challenge on both sides of the Atlantic

Last month marked the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta, an agreement between King John of England and feudal Barons, which played a key part in establishing values we know today such as the right to a fair trial and equality under the law. Tim Oliver and Cora Lacatus look at the historical and continuing importance of Magna Carta for both Europe and the U.S., writing that its precedent has played a role in fuelling political change in the form of the American and French revolutions as well as the setting up of human rights conventions in the aftermath of the Second World War. In light of concerns over U.S. aggressive foreign policy and the increasing power of multinationals, they argue that the anniversary of Magna Carta provides a reminder of the ongoing struggle to uphold the rule of law on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world

Donald Trump’s populist appeals failed to win over an electorate which wanted and needed a competent covid-19 response.

Since the reality of the threat of COVID-19 became apparent, President Trump has taken little meaningful action to protect Americans from the pandemic. Analysing the now lame-duck president’s tweets, Corina Lacatus and Gustav Meibauer argue that Trump’s decision to make populist appeals over the course of the election did not have the intended effect of increasing support from his base. Instead, Trump’s obvious lack of a competent COVID-19 management strategy may well have doomed him electorally

Quo vadis IR: method, methodology and innovation

This introduction to the special conference issue for the 2014 Millennium Conference on Method, Methodology and Innovation aims to provide a background to the conference theme, as well as the articles included in this issue. It hence serves to outline the reasoning for holding a conference on method and methodology in International Relations, it situates the present debate within a broader context, elaborates on why Millennium is a journal that is well suited to host such a debate, and offers an overview over the different contributions made in this issue

Magna Carta and the transatlantic relationship

The recent 800th anniversary celebrations of the signing of Magna Carta served as a reminder of the historical links binding England and the United States. Yet Magna Carta reflects ideas that were sweeping across medieval Europe, ideas that later crossed the Atlantic and which today form part of the strong links between the two sides of the North Atlantic