"Utilizing a grand strategy analysis (GSA) framework to analyze President Trump’s foreign policy strategy, surveying promises and actions from the 2016 campaign to the fall of 2018. Dr. Shively carries the framework throughout the book to provide an intellectual rigor for his conclusions ... Dr. Shively grades the administration low on policy implementation and substance, gives failing grades for the management process, and assigns mixed grades for the handling of specific actors. The book’s analysis ends before the advent of the COVID-19 crisis and subsequent election cycle. ... His assessment of a near-real-time, evolving process is insightful and reasoned. Those looking to understand the evolution of our nation’s strategy over the last few years can find answers in Make America First Again." —Strategic Studies Quarterly
"Readable, insightful, and clear, Make America First Again is a book that all Americans who care about our national security should read. Dr. Shively applies a keen mind and acute analysis to an undersubscribed topic. Often public and even scholarly discussion of Donald Trump’s grand strategy is all too often consumed with bitter commentary from those strategists whose axioms Trump’s strategy dismissed. In contrast, Dr. Shively’s analysis is profound, clarifying Trump’s strategy without resorting to hyper-partisan and unedifying cheap shots. In the process, Dr. Shively’s illumination of the art of Grand Strategy Analysis constitutes a lasting contribution to the study of grand strategy itself, independent of any one leader or administration. Read this book to understand our current grand strategy for addressing America’s global challenges." —John Adams, Brigadier General, U.S. Army (ret.)
"In Make America First Again: Grand Strategy Analysis and the Trump Administration, Jacob Shively lays the groundwork for what will no doubt be a long debate over Trump’s grand strategy, and he does so with wisdom and aplomb. All future work on this subject will have to refer to this book. An interesting, important, and most engaging read." —Christopher J. Fettweis, Professor of Political Science, Tulane University
“Written very clearly and well-grounded in the literature on grand strategy, Make America First Again addresses important theoretical issues. Its focus on Trump’s foreign policy is substantively interesting and important.” —Keith Shimko, Professor of Political Science, Purdue University
