While the new US president, Donald Trump, might have thought deeply
about making “America great again”, the policies (read: “America First”)
he has outlined to achieve this
objective are likely to cause other consequences, most important of
which is America’s further decline in the global arena and subsequent
rise of China to what the latter’s leadership has implicitly called
‘playing the world leader.’ To this end, China is expected to receive
significant support from both its rivals and allies. In Asia, for
example, Trump’s nationalist rhetoric has received a response that
points to a larger regional (read: “regionalization”) configuration
taking place wherein China, followed by Russia, is playing an anchor
role. As a matter of fact, China’s militaristic response i.e.,
deployment of intercontinental missile systems, to Trump’s aggressive
nationalist assertion and the heat it is creating with regard to the
South China Sea has found a powerful friend in Russia, and together both
of these countries are likely to challenge Trump-ism in its various
i.e., military and non-military forms.
