Under Trump, the neo-isolationists have defeated the neoconservatives

FOR close to four decades, the diplomatic and national security agendas of the Republican Party were dominated by a group of policy intellectuals – aka the neoconservatives – who promoted the notion that the US should seek to achieve geostrategic primacy, and to export its democratic and liberal values worldwide.

The so-called “neocons” were at the peak of their power during the administration of President George W Bush, who had embraced their foreign policy ideas, including their plans to establish American military hegemony in the Middle East and to remake the region along liberal-democratic lines.

These policies led to the disastrous and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that harmed US global interests, and created a political backlash at home against new American military interventions abroad. Those sentiments were eventually highlighted by presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2015.