Polaris Live Podcasts with Host, Sarwar Kashmeri

ZHA Daojiong is Professor of International Political Economy in the School of International Studies and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University, Beijing, China.

His areas of expertise include non-traditional security studies, international political economy and China’s international economic relations. His research publications cover such topics as energy, cross-boundary water management, development aid and public health, and international development cooperation. He also contributes opinion pieces in newspapers including the South China Morning Post. He studied at the University of Hawaii and the East West Center, where he earned a Doctorate in Political Science. Before joining the faculty of Peking University, he taught in the University of Macau, International University of Japan, Miyazaki International College, and Renmin University of China.

The 2nd inauguration of Donald Trump didn’t just herald the Presidency of another U.S. chief executive to lead the America for the next 4 years. It heralded a President who promised a wholesale redesign of the Presidency and the norms that channeled and guided American behavior within and without America.

Trump 2.0 is bringing forth America 2.0 – a country that will believe in might versus right, a reversal of the open trading system, a shrinkage of U.S. Departments that were considered indispensable including: Education, International AID, and a wholesale replacement of critically important Departments’ leadership and staffs by firing long time career officials and and hiring only those who have unquestioning loyalty to Mr. Trump, including the Departments of Justice, the Central Intelligence Agency, the FBI, and the Director of National Intelligence.

However, in the the attempt to re-craft the historical trajectory that U.S. has followed for generations we have only heard from the U.S. so far. How will the countries of the global south/majority react to this new unbound America? How will countries of the global south/global majority, ASEAN, BRICS, etc. not to mention China react and how will they attempt to re-draft their strategies (individually or collectively) to try and fit into a dramatically changing America, while keeping their economies and national interest reasonably intact.

Professor T V Paul

James McGill Professor of International Relations in the department of Political Science at McGill University. Paul specializes and teaches courses in international relations, especially international security, regional security and South Asia. He is the author or editor of 21 books and nearly 85 journal articles or book chapters. In September 2018, Paul became a Fellow (Elected) of the Royal Society of Canada. He delivered the presidential address on the theme: “Recasting Statecraft: International Relations and the Strategies of Peaceful Change.” In the presentation, he called for the International Relations discipline to devote more attention to strategies for achieving enduring peace among states.

His most recent book is the best-selling, “The Unfinished Quest: India’s Search for Major Power Status From Nehru to Modi“.

Mr. Daniel is a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy and Security Studies program at the Center of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)- Malaysia. His interests lie in the strategic-security challenges of Southeast Asia, including the impacts of major power dynamics on the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

On 20 January, with the inauguration of Donald Trump as President the United States proclaimed that world’s biggest and most powerful country was getting off the globally interconnected, rules-based system of which it was an integral part the day before.

American national interests are now going to be paramount in dealing with the world, the incoming President said, and America alone would decide and enforce its ideas of what was good for America, with financial and trade sanctions, and military power if necessary.

How is the rest of the world going to react to this new America? How will Trump 2.0’s changes impact the role of the Association of South East Asian States (ASEAN) of which Malaysia is the chair this year. And more importantly, what will be the reaction from China, the world’s other superpower and the only country that has the economic and military means to give pause to America’s might makes right rules.