Political Polarization And Its Influence On American Foreign Policy

In the recent decades,political polarization has gained popularity among scholars and has become one of the most outstanding features in American politics.This political phenomenon is reflected in both the president and the congress as well as the groups of political elites and the public,and has profoundly influenced many aspects of America’s political life including American foreign policy.After a few decades of development,political polarization in America gained more strength during the Obama administration and was further intensified after Donald Trump took the Oval Office in 2016.American academic circle began to pay attention to the polarization in American politics back in the 1980s and researches regarding related areas have been booming ever since as political polarization is constantly showing new characteristics in different times and its impact on American politics is increasing.Therefore,when analyzing the making of America’s foreign policy,one needs to take the factor of political polarization into account.After the 21^st century,the United States is feeling increasingly challenged by a rapidly rising China,and the relations between the largest developed and developing countries have become the most important bilateral ties in today’s world.During the Trump administration,the longest and the largest trade frictions between China and US broke out.Was political polarization an important driving force behind it?What kind of role did this political phenomenon actually play?In order answer questions like these,a comprehensive research concerning political polarization in America and what consequences it had brought upon America’s foreign policy,especially the China policy,will be both necessary and of significance.With that said,this thesis,mainly using the research methods of documentary analysis,qualitative analysis and case analysis,will explore the relations of political polarization and American foreign policies.First,the thesis will focus on explaining the meaning of political polarization,which will include the definition,history,contemporary development as well as the causes of this political phenomenon.Then the thesis will probe into the influences the political polarization has on the American foreign policy with a focus on how political polarization has affected the general directions of American foreign policy as well as how it has influenced the president’s foreign policy making,and then conduct a case study to analyze the correlation between political polarization and the reason behind the trade frictions between China and the United States.As the relations between China and the United States in the future are becoming increasingly uncertain,studying political polarization in America will also shed some light on how we can benefit China in dealing with problems regarding China-US relations and take effective measures when tackling issues of the trade frictions between the two countries,thus leading the bilateral ties to a healthy and stable direction.