The Influence Of American First On America's Indo-pacific Strategy

President Trump has led the United States into the “Trump Era” with the principle of America First and the goal of Making America Great Again.America First puts the national interests of the United States above all,especially its economic interests.This idea won a lot of American people for Trump and encountered little effective opposition internationally,which was highly related to the prevalence of American Exceptionalism in history.As a core principle,America First has important impacts on both domestic and foreign policies of the US.The Trump administration's shift to the Indo-pacific Strategy has drawn the world's attention on it.So far the institutionalization process of the strategy was basically completed and it has been in a stage of implementation.In terms of importance,America First is superior to Indo-pacific Strategy.The latter is subject to and serves the former.They are not always consistent with each other,however.This paper explores the impact of America First on Trump's Indo-pacific Strategy from the follow perspectives and holds that: America First underlines the relative decline and strategic contraction of the United States,which to some extent weakens the attraction of Indo-pacific Vision;considering the change of defense budget,America First does not obviously limit the military resource investment of the US government in the Indo-pacific region;compared with Obama's Re-balance to the Asia-pacific,Trump administration does not significantly shrink nor expand the military scale of the region,and both of them invested considerable strategic resources in this region;so far the actual economic investments of Trump Administration in Indo-pacific region is limited,which is related to the emphasis of economic interests of America First;under America First,the interaction between the United States and Japan,India and Australia,the main members of the Indo-pacific Strategy has been affected to some extent,which is mainly shown in two aspects: the trade disputes guided by America First principle and the adjustment of the security relationship between the US and its allies.