Continuity and Change in the American foreign Policy towards the Middle East: (Trump and Biden Administrations 2018-2024)

The main purpose of this study is to examine the aspects of continuity and change in the American foreign policy between Trump and Biden administrations towards the Middle East region issues. It also tries to analyze the reasons behind the aspects of continuity and the aspects of change. The study depends on the continuity and change approach to analyze the American foreign policy towards the Middle East under Trump and Biden administrations, and mainly on the assumptions put by Kjell Goldmann and Charles Hermann, who are considered pioneers in the studies of the continuity and change approach. The study finds that, despite the different partisan backgrounds for Trump (Republican) and Biden (Democrat), the aspects of continuity towards the main issues in the Middle East are more than the aspects of change towards the way of dealing with the Iranian nuclear and non-nuclear issues, the relations with Saudi Arabia and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although both of them criticized their previous predecessors’ policies towards these three issues and pledged to change these policies, both of them ended, to a great extent, taking the same decisions after reaching the office officially. The value of this paper resides in the analysis of the American foreign policy towards the most important issues in the Middle East through two different administrations, this could be useful for making predictions about future American scenarios concerning three of the most important regional powers in the region.

Keywords – American Foreign Policy, Continuity, Change, Trump administration, Biden administration.