Economic protectionism of the United States of America towards the People’s Republic of China in the era of Donald Trump from the perspective of offensive realism

Abstract

In the post-cold era, the economic and military power of the People‘s Republic of China is constantly growing. As a result, the rebirth of the idea of the protectionist economic policy, which has always been present in the American public debate, took place in the U.S. This idea is evidently reflected in the foreign policy of the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump. This article includes the analysis of the contemporary economic protectionism of the United States from the perspective of the offensive realism theory created by John Mearsheimer. The theory is based on three fundamental assumptions: the structure of the international system is anarchic, the primary goal of a state is to survive, for that reason states seek maximalization of their power.