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Context
National Security Strategy of US
Author’s contention
For India, continuity in US policy towards the Subcontinent under Trump is welcome but Delhi must watch out for the implications of Trump’s determination to pare down America’s expansive internationalism that has been there since the end of the Second World War
Serious about “America First”
The conventional wisdom has been that Trump’s rhetoric on closing America’s borders, replacing free trade with fair trade, injecting greater reciprocity into US alliances and walking away from constraining multilateral agreements was just campaign rhetoric. After a year in office, the world knows that Trump is quite serious about putting “America First”
Adapting to uncertainty
Given America’s continuing weight in global affairs, adapting to the uncertainty that Trump generates is a major imperative for all of America’s interlocutors
- Consider, for example, the NSS’s assertion that Russia has now become a threat. But Trump could not get himself to articulate that conclusion in the speech. In fact, he talked of cooperation with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin
Challenge for India
The policy challenge for Delhi is two-fold. One is to seize the opportunities that Trump is offering in countering terrorism and promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan and, more broadly, the Indo-Pacific. The other is to prepare for the unprecedented changes in America’s international relations under Trump
