THE UNITED STATES TURNS WITHIN
BY DR. STUTI BANERJEE *
The outcome of the 2016 Presidential election in America has long seized to be a matter relegated to the domain of the country ' s domestic affairs. That election was, perhaps, the world ' s most closely watched election, with policy makers across the world hedging their bets on one candidate or the other and some trying to predict the direction of future American policy making based on the campaign speeches and past record of each of the Presidential candidates. With the election of Donald J. Trump into office, some predictions have proven accurate while others have not. As a President who has never been in public office before he entered the White House, it was difficult to understand Trump ' s views on international issues. Nonetheless, he did articulate his domestic policies fairly well during his campaign, which also had elements of his future foreign policy.
As the President of an economically and militarily powerful nation, Trump has the capacity to guide international politics with the help of American allies and partners across the world. In a largely globalised world, he has, however, decided to focus his efforts on bilateral relations and move away from multilateral agreements as far as possible. If one studies his campaign speeches, one will find that his actions now had been spoken about then; he is merely following through on his pledges. The‘ withdrawal’ that has taken the world by surprise was articulated in his campaign, from leaning towards bilateral relations as opposed to multilateral relations. In his speech at his inauguration, he stated, " We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow." 1 He articulated his‘ America First’ policy in both balancing the trade deficit and equal burden sharing in international security. " For many decades, we’ ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry; subsidised the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military; we’ ve defended other nations ' borders while refusing to defend our own; and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America’ s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and
32 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 7 • July 2018, Noida