Michael Auslin: Asia and America in the Age of Trump - War, Retreat or Recommit?

Michael Auslin
Williams-Griffis Fellow in Contemporary Asia, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

ABSTRACT

Fresh off his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, President Trump is pressing ahead on tariffs against Chinese goods and increased U.S. military activity in the South China Sea. On the surface, Trump seems committed to enhancing America's role in the Indo-Pacific region. But considering China's aggressive One Belt-One Road initiative, unrelenting militarization of its South China Sea possessions, and lack of U.S. proposals for new free trade agreements, many critics question whether Trump has an overall strategy for Asia. Is there a logic to Trump's policy, or is it simply reactive, making more likely the chance for war or retreat if conditions worsen in the region?

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Auslin is the inaugural Williams-Griffis Fellow in Contemporary Asia at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He specializes in global risk analysis, U.S. security and foreign policy strategy, and security and political relations in Asia.

A best-selling author, Dr. Auslin’s latest book is The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World's Most Dynamic Region (Yale). He is a longtime contributor to the Wall Street Journal and National Review, and his writing appears in other leading publications, including The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Politico. He comments regularly for U.S. and foreign print and broadcast media.

Previously, Dr. Auslin was an associate professor of history at Yale University, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. He has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Fulbright Scholar, and a Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund, among other honors, and serves on the board of the Wilton Park USA Foundation. He received a BSc from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and his PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.