EU’s Security Response to Trump’s Neo-Mercantilist Foreign Policy: An Empirical Approach to Digital Diplomacy and Strategic Autonomy

Year 2025, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 1 - 17, 28.07.2025

Ekin Deniz Uyğun

Abstract

The foreign policy approach adopted in the Donald Trump era has been shaped by the understanding of weakening multilateral structures based on international cooperation and conducting foreign relations mostly through unilateral strategic moves. In this direction, a neo-mercantilist perspective has been adopted; this line, which is based on economic protectionism and the absolute priority of national interests, has had significant effects not only on the foreign policy behavior of the United States, but also on the functioning of the established order at the global level. Trump’s orientation has brought the need for a more independent defense structure within the European Union (EU) to the agenda and strengthened the discourse of strategic autonomy. However, the transformation of this discourse into a permanent and holistic structure has not been possible due to the ongoing differences in security priorities among member states. This study asks how Donald Trump’s neo-mercantilist foreign policy has affected the EU’s pursuit of strategic autonomy and how the internal differences of the member states limit the transformation of this orientation into a common defense policy. This argument is supported by extracting the discourses of the leaders on platform X through data scraping technique and subjecting them to frequency analysis.

Keywords

Neo-mercantilism, Strategic Autonomy, EU Foreign Policy, Trump Era Foreign Policy, Digital Diplomacy, Discourse and Frequency Analysis

Trump’ın Neo-Merkantalist Dış Politikası Karşısında Avrupa Birliği’nin Güvenlik Yanıtı: Dijital Diplomasi ve Stratejik Özerkliğe Ampirik Bir Yaklaşım

Abstract

Donald Trump döneminde benimsenen dış politika yaklaşımı, uluslararası iş birliğine dayalı çok taraflı yapıların zayıflatılması ve dış ilişkilerin daha çok tek taraflı stratejik hamlelerle yürütülmesi anlayışıyla şekillenmiştir. Bu doğrultuda neo-merkantalist bir perspektif benimsenmiş; ekonomik korumacılığı ve ulusal çıkarların mutlak önceliğini esas alan bu çizgi, yalnızca ABD’nin dış politika davranışlarında değil, aynı zamanda küresel düzeyde yerleşik düzenin işleyişinde de belirgin etkiler yaratmıştır. Trump’ın bu yönelimi, Avrupa Birliği (AB) içinde savunma alanında daha bağımsız bir yapılanma ihtiyacını gündeme taşımış ve stratejik özerklik (SA) söylemini güçlendirmiştir. Ancak bu söylemin kalıcı ve bütüncül bir yapıya dönüşmesi, üye devletler arasında süregelen güvenlik önceliği farklılıkları nedeniyle mümkün olmamıştır. Bu çalışma, Donald Trump’ın neo-merkantalist dış politikasının AB’nin SA arayışını nasıl etkilediğini ve bu yönelimin ortak bir savunma politikasına dönüşmesini üye devletlerin içsel farklılıklarının nasıl sınırladığını sorgulamaktadır. Bu sav veri kazıma tekniğiyle X platformu üzerinden liderlerin söylemlerinin çıkarılması ve frekans analizine tabi tutulması ile desteklenmiştir.

Keywords

Neo-Merkantalizm, Stratejik Özerklik, AB Dış Politikası, Trump Dönemi Dış Politikası, Dijital Diplomasi, Söylem ve Frekans Analizi

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