Introduction.- The Tragedy of United States-China Relations – Conflict of Necessity or Conflict of Choice? (Liang).- U.S. Bilateralism under Trump, Power Shift in East Asia, and Implications for Regional Security and Prosperity: A Theoretical Analysis of Japan’s Strategic Adjustment (Akaha).- Changing Power Dynamics in Asia: Implications for the U.S.-ROK Alliance (Paradise).- Australia-U.S. Alliance since the Pivot: Consolidation and Hedging in Response to China’s Rise (Yuan).- The Russia–U.S.–China Strategic Triangle in the Asia-Pacific (Lukin).- United States-India Relations during the Trump Era (Joshi).- Trump’s America in the Indo-Pacific: Southeast Asians Coping with Harsh Realities and Trying to Come Out Ahead (Weber).- Conclusion.
Tsuneo Akaha is Professor Emeritus, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (US). He received his Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (US). He is the editor/co-editor of: The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Balancing Soft and Hard Power in East Asia; Crossing National Borders: Human Migration Issues in Northeast Asia; Politics and Economics in Northeast Asia: Nationalism and Regionalism in Contention; and Politics and Economics in the Russian Far East: Changing Ties with Asia-Pacific.
Jingdong Yuan is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney (Australia) and Associate Senior Fellow, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Dr. Yuan’s research focuses on Indo–Pacific security, Chinese foreign policy, Sino–Indian relations, and nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. He is the co-author/co-editor of Chinese Cruise Missiles: A Quiet Force-Multiplier, China and India: Cooperation or Conflict? and Australia and China at 40. He is currently completing a book manuscript on China-South Asian relations.
Wei Liang is Gordon Paul Smith Professor of International Policy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (US). Her research interests include international political economy of East Asia and Chinese foreign economic policy. She is a co-author of China and East Asia’s Post-Crises Community and co-editor of China in Global Trading Governance and Challenges to China’s Economic Statecraft.
The book assesses U.S. foreign relations in the Indo-Pacific during the Trump Administration, with a particular focus on the regional powers’ response to Trump's “America First” policy. The chapter authors draw on the theoretical insights from dominant International Relations theories – (Neo)Realism, Liberal Institutionalism, and Constructivism – to explain both continuities and discontinuities found in the regional powers’ security and foreign economic policies before and during the Trump Administration. The book will be of interest to new and advanced students of International Relations, Asian Studies, and U.S. foreign policy. The multi-national perspectives of the regional experts offer penetrating analyses of the likely legacy (or lack thereof) of the range of political, security, and trade policy initiatives launched by the Trump Administration and its implications for the balance of power, regional institutions, and national identity-informed approaches to international relations in the Indo-Pacific.