Valdai Club

The United States is entering a new stage in its development. Although the U.S. remains the leading world power, recent events indicate that it is not immune to instability and change. More importantly, those changes caught the U.S. elite by surprise. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump, the two major parties’ presidential candidates, offered a program to resolve the country’s underlying problems, and are themselves symptoms of those ills. Therefore, either outcome of the presidential election would have perpetuated the same overriding sense of uncertainty that characterizes the U.S. political system. And because the U.S. holds a special position in the world, that uncertainty will spill over into global processes and complicate an already complex picture.

The Valdai Club report provides the assessment of the psychological and  professional competence of Donald Trump, his organizational skills, political vision, style of thinking, political abilities and emotional maturity.

The second part of the report contains assumptions on the Donald Trump's foreign policy platform, based on his election proposals, composition of his advisers and the presidential team. The report also analyzes the domestic policy of the new US President and identifies the political limitations facing him. 

The authors formulate conclusions, which Russia should take after the electoral campaign in the United States and describe the likely scenarios of the development of bilateral relations after the inauguration of Donald Trump.

Authors of the report:

Andrey Bezrukov,  Associate Professor at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO);  

Olga Rebro, Senior Analyst, Foreign Policy Advisory Group;

Andrey Sushentsov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, head of the "Foreign Policy"agency, at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

Download Report in English (PDF)