President Donald J. Trump: An agent of norm death?
| Author | Diana Panke,Ulrich Petersohn |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702017740159 |
| Subject Matter | Policy Briefs |
Policy Brief
President Donald J.
Trump: An agent of
norm death?
Diana Panke
Professur fu¨r Governance in Mehrebenensystemen, Seminar fu¨r
Wissenschaftliche Politik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universita
¨t Freiburg,
Freiburg, Germany
Ulrich Petersohn
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in International Politics,
University of Liverpool, Department of Politics, Liverpool, United
Kingdom
Abstract
Since his inauguration, US President Donald Trump has made news by violating inter-
national and domestic norms, such as norms of diplomatic communication or the
non-discrimination norm. This paper uses theoretical approaches to norm eradication
in order to examine whether President Trump has turned into an effective agent of
norm death leading to the abolition of domestic and international standards of appropri-
ateness. It discusses how the precision of the respective norms, the stability of their
contexts, and the actions of norm proponents have played out. This reveals that
President Trump’s actions have so far lacked effectiveness, and have not led to norm
death. The longevity of challenged norms cannot be taken for granted, however—
especially if the challenger is a powerful actor. In order to avoid norm death under
this circumstance, it is essential that norm proponents possess capacities and compe-
tencies to act, and employ them to defend challenged norms.
Keywords
International norms, domestic norms, US, President Donald J. Trump, norm violation,
non-discrimination, freedom of the press, commitment to NATO, Twitter diplomacy,
multilateralism
International Journal
2017, Vol. 72(4) 572–579
!The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702017740159
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Corresponding author:
Diana Panke, University of Freiburg – Political Science, Chair – Governance in Multilevel Systems,
Belfortstr. 20 Freiburg 79085, Germany.
Email: diana.panke@politik.uni-freiburg.de
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