Kai Oppermann is Professor of International Politics at the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. He has previously held positions at the University of Sussex, King’s College London and the University of Cologne. His research interests focus on the domestic sources of foreign policy and the role of narratives in international politics. His work has been published in journals such as European Journal of International Relations, International Affairs, Journal of European Public Policy, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, and Foreign Policy Analysis. He is the co-editor, with Klaus Brummer, Sebastian Harnisch and Diana Panke of the book Foreign Policy as Public Policy? Promise and Pitfalls (2019) and a co-editor of the journal German Politics.
If Donald Trump was President of the United States when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, instead of Joe Biden, Trump’s personality would have led to a very different U.S. response. Trump would not have swiftly and strongly condemned Russia or clearly sided with Ukraine in the initial stages of the invasion, and he would not have brought together a multilateral front against Russia – as Biden did.