The Disruptor

Donald Trump's gradual shift to transactional diplomacy has one long-term motive- to counter the Chinese challenge. It won't be such a bad thing for India

- Uma Purushothaman

On February 28, the world watched in shock as newly elected US President Donald Trump reprimanded Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in full glare of the world media at the Oval Office.

This was only the latest in Trump's absolute disregard for norms of diplomatic niceties, following up on his statements on acquiring Greenland, on the Panama Canal, and his suggestion that Canada should be the 51st state of the US. It looks like US foreign policy is being turned on its head, and that too by its own president. What then does Trump mean for American foreign policy, global politics and the Liberal International Order (LIO), of which the US has been the principal exponent?

Since the end of World War II, international politics has functioned under the rules-based LIO. This order is a system of laws, rules and norms—like respect for sovereignty, free trade and open markets, international institutions, peaceful settlement of disputes and the rule of law. The role of the US in providing global public goods—such as security and stability in key regions through its economic and military power—has been the key to the sustenance of this order, even more so since the end of the Cold War. Promoting this order through support to globalisation, democracy, human rights and providing security guarantees to partners and allies while safeguarding the pre-eminence of the US has been the most enduring part of the American grand strategy. The establishment of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency further cemented US leadership in the order. It is this order that Trump—to the dismay of many Western politicians and academics—is threatening to upend.