The National Security Strategy (NSS) of the United States from December 2017 provided the requirement of integrated regional strategies meant to face China and Russia’s aspirations to project power outside their borders and mostly over their neighboring states. The 2017 NSS formally mentions the national interest of the United States in a free and open Indo-Pacific area, but a coherent strategy regarding the concept was enunciated by the Indo-Pacific Strategy Report of the Department of Defense in June 2019. Although initially, a number of experts considered that President Trump was turning to isolationism in American foreign policy, qualitative research focused on official documents and speeches analysis from the period of Donald Trump’s mandate reveals that the „Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) strategy formulated during his term, proved to be a continuation of the „Rebalance to Asia” policy of the Barack Obama administration, with an emphasis on prioritizing the American interest regarding the Indo-Pacific region, in the context of China's regional rise and the expansion of its influence in the area. Despite criticism for its lack of clarity resulting into a difficulty to implement the strategy and for attempting to extend American hegemony in the region in order to contain the rise of China, this paper aims to prove that the FOIP strategy under the Donald Trump administration succeeded in strengthening alliances of the United States with Indo-Pacific states, managed to revitalize the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) and laid the foundations of AUKUS (the Australia-Great Britain-US trilateral strategic defense alliance). The FOIP strategic concept in the Trump era experienced a turning point that proved its relevance in the evolution of subsequent Sino-American relations. The approach is all the more important as the 2017-2021 Indo-Pacific strategy has subsequently influenced the Biden administration's priority policy of maintaining a regional order based on existing international law with the objective to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific area.
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Student author
Author addressing title
Mrs.
First Name
Anca
Last Name
Vasilache
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Other
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E-mail
avasilache@vasilache-attorneys.ro
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Institution/University
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania
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