Worries proliferated during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign that the election of Donald Trump would signal drastic changes in Washington’s foreign policy. Those fears proved mostly unfounded. However, Trump’s public affinity for several authoritarian regimes, regardless of their flagrant human rights abuses should concern all.

US President Donald Trump is making his first official visit to Asia. The 12-day tour of five countries will focus on easing doubts about the reliability of the United States and its leader. Given the challenges and possibilities for the US in Asia, that is an unambitious goal.

Trump’s “America First” strategy is really not that different from the self-serving strategy the US has always pursued.

It is well known that tremendous differences exist between China and the US, the world’s two most important countries. How can this gap be breached?

The United States has never had a president like Donald Trump. With a narcissistic personality and a short attention span, and lacking experience in world affairs, he tends to project slogans rather than strategy in foreign policy.

On July 6th CSIS hosted an event to release a major report on U.S.-China relations written by a group of experts from some of America’s leading foreign policy think tanks.

As the supposed engine of regional integration, and bedrock of East Asian security architecture, the ASEAN has sought, with limited success, to mediate maritime disputes and avoid conflict in the region. But beyond concerns over the gradual loss of so-called ‘ASEAN centrality,’ Southeast Asian countries are also worried about sudden and destructive escalation in Sino-American tensions in the area, especially if the Trump administration makes a step too far in order to project toughness.

"I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job. My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.” These are the words of Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State, the nation’s highest ranking diplomat. Tillerson’s candid comments come in light of his first trip to Asia where he met with leaders in Japan, South Korea and China.

The tendency to retreat into the comfort that the past provides will only be reinforced when the President and the Prime Minister meet on May 4 aboard a U.S. warship docked in New York Harbour to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. On the one hand, the symbolism is powerful: two close, longstanding allies marking a pivotal moment in which the threat of Japanese imperialism was turned back. On the other, it projects a view of the relationship that is literally moored to memory, failing to engage in the more difficult conversations about what the American posture in Asia will look like in the years ahead, and what that means for Australia.

When Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States on January 20, many in the U.S. and other parts of the world tended to believe that the U.S. would experience dramatic changes in the first two years of his presidency, creating a world full of uncertainties.