The second Presidency of Donald Trump is challenging the separation of powers in the United States, as the administration defies the courts and utilizes emergency powers to control aspects of policymaking normally designated to Congress. The courts – all the way up to the Supreme Court – have stressed the importance of adherence to the rule of law, but the responses to court rulings by the administration on issues ranging from due process to releasing federal funds seem to be setting the stage for a showdown between the President and the Supreme Court. The Congress, currently controlled by the Republicans, has so far been unwilling to check Presidential power. However, concerns have surfaced among Republican elites over the impact of Trump’s policies on the electoral prospects of his party. How has the challenge posed by the Trump administration unfolded since his inauguration? How unprecedented are the current tensions between the White House and other branches of government? What are the possible future implications of the approach pursued by the administration?
The US Research Day 2025 is organised by the Center on US Politics and Power (CUSPP) at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA).
Programme
Opening words: Katja Creutz, Acting Deputy Director, Programme Director, FIIA
Keynote presentation: Corey L. Brettschneider, Professor of Political Science, Brown University
Panel discussion:
Corey L. Brettschneider, Professor of Political Science, Brown University
Benita Heiskanen, Professor of North American Studies, John Morton Center, University of Turku
Anna Kronlund, University Lecturer, University of Turku
Maria Lindén, Research Fellow, FIIA
Chair: Ville Sinkkonen, Leading Researcher, Center on US Politics and Power, FIIA
Högtalare
Acting Deputy Director, Programme Director, FIIA
Katja Creutz is the Acting Deputy Director of FIIA and Programme Director of the Global Security and Governance research programme. She is also an Affiliated Research Fellow with the Erik Castrén Institute at the University of Helsinki. Her main field of expertise is international law and especially issues of responsibility, human rights and global governance. Dr Creutz holds a Doctor of Laws degree (2015) and a Master of Laws programme degree from the University of Helsinki (2004) and a Master of Political Science from Åbo Akademi University (2000).
Professor of Political Science, Brown University
Corey Brettschneider is professor of political science at Brown University, where he teaches constitutional law and political theory. He is the author of The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It, which is the winner of the 2025 Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. He is also the author of The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents (WW Norton, 2018), which Kirkus called ”vital reading for all Americans.” His other books include When the State Speaks, What Should It Say? How Democracies Can Protect Expression and Promote Equality (Princeton University Press, 2012) and Democratic Rights: The Substance of Self-Government (Princeton University Press, 2007). He is the editor of the series Penguin Liberty (Penguin/Random House) and the author of numerous articles in top political science journals and law reviews, including the American Political Science Review, Political Theory, and The Texas Law Review.
His constitutional law casebook is widely used in classrooms throughout the United States. Brettschneider’s writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Politico, and The Washington Post. He holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton and a JD from Stanford Law School. He is also the co-host of a new top-ranked podcast about the crisis of democracy in the United States called The Oath and the Office.
Professor of North American Studies, John Morton Center, University of Turku
Benita Heiskanen is Professor of North American Studies at the University of Turku . She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and has held academic positions across Europe. Her research focuses on transnational American Studies, U.S. history, politics, and culture, race and ethnicity in the United States, as well as U.S. gun culture. She is also a frequent media commentator on U.S. affairs in Finland.
University Lecturer, University of Turku
Kronlund is a senior lecturer in political science. In addition, she leads a Kone Foundation funded project on the UN’s legitimacy and transnational challenges at the Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä. She currently also serves as the managing editor of Pro et Contra. Books from the Finnish Political Science Association book series.
She is a Non-resident Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA). Previously, she has worked as a senior research fellow at FIIA, postdoctoral researcher at the John Morton Center for North American Studies, University of Turku, and university teacher at the University of Jyväskylä. She is a docent in political science (especially U.S. politics) at the University of Jyväskylä.
Research Fellow, FIIA
Maria Lindén is a Research Fellow at the Center on US Politics and Power of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, and a PhD student at the University of Tampere. She is the author of the narrative non-fiction book Trumpin kansa (Trump’s People, Into Kustannus 2020) and a former news journalist.
Lindén’s main area of expertise is the United States’ domestic politics. Her current research focuses on the crisis of liberal democracy in the present-day United States, especially electoral manipulation. She lived in Boston from 2015 to 2019, working as a freelance journalist covering American politics for the Finnish News Agency and other Finnish media outlets.
Leading Researcher, Center on US Politics and Power, FIIA
Ville Sinkkonen is Leading Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Center on US Politics and Power. His research focuses on US foreign policy, great-power politics, normative power, and the politics of trust in international relations.
Sinkkonen is the author of A Comparative Appraisal of Normative Power: The European Union, the United States and the January 25th, 2011 Revolution in Egypt (Brill, 2015), and his work has been published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, and European Foreign Affairs Review, among others. He holds an LL.D. (International Law) from the University of Turku, where he defended his doctoral dissertation Failing hegemony? Four essays on the global engagement of the United States of America in the 21st Century in December 2020.
Sinkkonen is the chairperson of the Finnish International Studies Association (FISA) and co-editor of the Nordic Review of International Studies (NRIS).