Nelsen speaks to NPR’s Beardsley ’86 about G7 Summit

Furman University’s Brent Nelsen spoke with NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley ’86 about the G7 Summit and the headwinds U.S. President Donald Trump will likely face in Geneva. Nelsen, the Jane Fishburne Hipp Professor of Politics and International Affairs and director of the Tocqueville Center at Furman, said, “The war has not gone well in the Middle East. He’s having problems with Israel. And he’s, of course, at a much lower level of support in the United States. He’s got midterms coming up. They don’t look good.”

Despite the challenges Trump must endure at home and abroad, members of the G7, especially the Europeans, will be under pressure to be conciliatory, Nelsen said. The Europeans are aligning themselves with one another and getting stronger, and there’s a sense they will have to go it alone at some point, he told Beardsley. “But also this recognition that they can’t do it quite yet, and they’re going to need to still be nice to Donald Trump,” Nelsen added.

A native of South Carolina, Beardsley graduated from Furman with a B.A. in European history and French. She received a master’s degree in international business from the University of South Carolina.