The Future Trend Of U.S.-Mexico Relations:A Study From The Perspective Of Donald Trump's "America First" Policy

As a regional major power in Latin America,Mexico is the only developing country that shares land border with the U.S..Such special geographical location and national identity make Mexico a crucial part in the American foreign-policy-making process.Monroe Doctrine,as the cornerstone of the American Latin American policy,deeply affects the U.S.government's policy toward Mexico.In this historical context,the U.S.has always regarded Mexico as its “backyard”,so there is a clear hegemonic tendency in its policy interaction with Mexico.By reviewing the history between the United States and Mexico after the Cold War,this dissertation summarizes several representative issues in the bilateral relations — immigration,trade negotiations,joint drug control and resource allocation.These issues,which contain strategic considerations of the two countries in relevant areas,have become the "ashram" of the diplomatic game between the two sides.The paper focuses on the American policy adjustment toward Mexico since President Trump's inauguration,analyzing the essence of Trump's “America first”policy from three dimensions as follow: populism,unilateralism,hegemony-and-bullying.Combined with current issues,this paper analyzes the deep-seated structural contradictions between the U.S-Mexico relations from three layers — the conflict of power struggle between hegemonic power and its relatively weak neighbor,the conflict of economic interests between developed country and emerging economy,and the conflict between the builder of regional order and the“hitchhiker”.Taking into consideration the results of Mexico's latest presidential election and the current rise of left-wing populists,the paper makes a forecast of the future trend of bilateral relations from the perspective of “America First” policy.At the end of the article,the dissertation notes that “limited alienation” could be the general trend in future relations between the two countries.