The shifts in international relations brought about by Trump's 'America First' policy As of April 2026, historians are already witnessing in real-time the impact Donald Trump's second term is leaving on the international order. Having won the November 2024 presidential election and returned to power in January 2025, President Trump's 'America First' policy is once again shaking the international community just over a year into his second term. While his first administration's (2017-2021) foreign and economic policies weakened existing cooperative frameworks, the second administration is solidifying that legacy and spreading its ripple effects across the globe. The future direction of the global order and multilateral cooperation structures remains a key topic requiring in-depth analysis. Trump's 'America First' stance is once again causing cracks in traditional alliance relationships. Following demands for increased defense spending targeting NATO during his first term and the 2017 decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the second administration once again pressured the transatlantic alliance in March 2025, demanding NATO member states spend more than 3% of their GDP on defense. In its May 2025 cover story titled 'Trump's Return: Isolating America Again?', The Economist analyzed his foreign policy, noting that 'while the U.S. has partially succeeded in reducing its cost burden in international solidarity, this has come at the expense of eroding allies' trust.' Indeed, Germany and France publicly declared their intention to strengthen 'European strategic autonomy' from the latter half of 2025, shifting towards reducing their dependence on the U.S. This weakens the momentum for multilateral cooperation in international politics, creating an environment where nations worldwide strengthen their self-centered strategies and keep each other in check. The most prominent change resulting from Trump's foreign policy is the intensification of strategic competition with China. The high-tariff policy, introduced during his first administration to address the trade deficit with China, has been further expanded in his second term. In February 2025, the Trump administration raised the average tariff rate on Chinese imports from 25% to 35%, to which China immediately responded with retaliatory tariffs. While these protectionist measures led to a recovery in some sectors of U.S. manufacturing, they once again disrupted global supply chains, exacerbating uncertainty in the world economy. According to the 'World Economic Outlook' report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January 2026, the projected global GDP growth rate for 2026 was downgraded to 2.9%. The IMF explicitly stated in the report that 'the re-escalation of U.S.-China trade conflicts and the spread of protectionism are major obstacles to global economic recovery.' This presents a significant dilemma for South Korea, which maintains a high economic dependence on China while also upholding a close security alliance with the United States. Since Trump's return to power, South Korea has faced fundamental challenges to its diplomatic and economic strategies. During his first term, President Trump exerted intense pressure for renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and demanded a significant increase in South Korea's share of the cost for maintaining U.S. forces in Korea. In April 2025, the second administration initiated renegotiations for the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) on defense cost-sharing, demanding more than double South Korea's current contribution, which sparked fierce debate within the country. A professor of international politics at Korea University's Graduate School of International Studies analyzed in an academic seminar in November 2025 that 'the policies of Trump's second administration are significantly restricting the strategic options for Asia, especially South Korea.' He added, 'While South Korea needs to seek diplomatic autonomy by diversifying its dependence on the U.S., the security environment, marked by North Korea's nuclear threat and China's rise, makes this difficult.' In contrast, Japan leveraged its relationship with Trump differently. The Japanese government announced in 2025 its plan to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP, expressing its commitment to strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance, and was praised by the Trump administration as an 'exemplary ally.' This difference in response between South Korea and Japan offers important implications for South Korea's diplomatic strategy. South Korea: A New Phase in U.S. Diplomatic Strategy Considering current situations like the Russia-Ukraine war and conflicts in the Middle East, Trump's approach introduces new variables to international peace. Although President Trump declared in February 2025 that he would 'end the war in Ukraine within 30 days,' the conflict continues as of April 2026. U.S. military aid to Ukraine decrea
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