Trump and the Indo‐Pacific

 As President‐elect Trump grapples with key appointments in his incoming White

House administration, the nature of his impact on the region remains one of the
great known unknowns.

 The Trump presidency has the potential to produce greater ‘shocks’ even than
the Nixon presidency.
 Although Trump has questioned the efficacy of alliances, he has not explicitly
advocated that the United States abandon its allies and partners in Asia thus far,
at least (Jae‐soon 2016).
 The difficulty of making sense of possible foreign policy under Trump has been
compounded by a simultaneous promise to expand significantly the number of
vessels in the US navy (Stewart & Creighton 2016).
‘Indo‐Pacific’
 The Indo-Pacific is a geopolitical construct that includes the Indian Ocean, the
Western Pacific, and the South China Sea, stretching from the eastern coast of
Africa to the Pacific island states.

 The concept has gained significance in recent years due to the growing
economic and strategic importance of the region.
Trump's Indo-Pacific policy
 Promising to remove the United States from the TPP and by overturning the
painstakingly negotiated agreement with Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear
weapons, the preference for bilateralism, even unilateralism over multilateralism
in both the trade and security realms, is becoming clearer (Brown 2016; Ferrier
2016).
 If the Trump Administration does maintain U.S. engagements with Asia, it is
possible that the Quadrilateral Defense Initiative (QDI) could see a revival,
bringing together the United States, Japan, Australia and India once again, albeit
with rehashed intents, capabilities and promises.
 Trump's ideas regarding the United States–India relationship remain unknown,
and the ongoing upward trajectory of the relationship is uncertain.