Graffiti depicting Russian president Vladimir Putin and president elect Donald Trump in Vilnius, Lithuania. Picture by Mindaugas Kulbis AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved. The presidency of Donald Trump, symptomatic of a deep crisis in the liberal capitalist order, can spell wide ranging structural changes in Middle East international relations, changes that will serve to embolden and strengthen the hands of autocrats, from Sisi in Egypt to Assad in Syria.
Even though Trump remains a wild card, his campaign as well as his cabinet choices to date offer a glimpse on the direction of the policies he intends to follow in the Middle East.
The Trump campaign revolved around the notion that America had become international laughing stock because it had been taken advantage of by its allies. Trump struck more of an isolationist tone arguing for the need for American allies to do more. He has also oscillated to more extreme and militaristic positions, which reflect a more aggressive stance; he stated, for example, that he would use torture, even if proven ineffective, resort to massive bombing campaigns against IS as well as expand Guantanamo bay prison.
