Trump's America: International Relations and the Construction of They-Images

Unequal power balances (or power ratios) between human beings, including unequal power ratios between nations, distort mutual perceptions in systematic, recognizable ways. And changes in power ratios over time are associated with shifts in perception. The power position of the USA in global affairs affects Americans’ “we-images” of their own country and their (often inaccurate) “they-image” of the outside world. It also affects the outside world’s they-images of the USA. Norbert Elias’s theory of established-outsider relations is drawn upon to suggest how these may all be affected by the relative decline of American power