MNA – Robert Jervis, a professor of international politics at Columbia University, says US President Donald Trump is not a “normal president with a set ideology."


“Trump isn't a normal president with a set ideology and deep connections with the foreign policy world,” Jervis tells Mehr News correspondent.

Following is the full text of the interview:

What are the major effective decisive forces on Trump among persons and interest groups?

He listens to big business but I think not because they have power over him, but because he thinks people who have made a lot of money are smart.  Among his advisors, family and personal connections are paramount.

Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller were referred to as influential persons on Trump’s decisions. Speculation on Trump’s impressionability from Kushner (his son – in law) after the dismissal of Bannon as his ideologist got increased. What are the impressions of such persons like Kushner on Trump’s decisions?

No one knows for sure--or at least I don't--but he seems to listen to Kushner even if he doesn't always take his advice.

Who are the people on the backstage of determining Trump’s foreign policy, especially his policies on the Middle East? What are the main and secondary decision makers in this process?

I don't think there is much backstage--certainly not in the bureaucracy.

Which are the effective think tanks on Trump’s foreign policy?

None--Trump isn't a normal President with a set ideology and deep connections with the foreign policy world.

How much effective are lobbies such as the one by Saudi Arabia on Trump’s foreign policy?

I think he thinks SA is important, but not because it has an effective lobby. Rather because Obama had bad, or at least strained, relations with it, he wants to do something different. He also seems to have the idea of a Sunni-Israel coalition against Iran, but hasn't squared this with his plans to destroy ISIL.

Robert Jervis is the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University, and has been a member of the faculty since 1980. Jervis was the recipient of the 1990 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Jervis is co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, a series published by Cornell University Press, and the member of numerous editorial review boards for scholarly journals.

By: Javad Heirannia