Trump's new foreign stance comes at a critical point

THE Trump administration released on Monday its National Security Strategy. Almost a year into office, the document comes at a time when the president's plans to deliver his promised dramatic new foreign policy direction are in tatters.

When US President Donald Trump moved into the White House, he promised an "America first", neo-isolationist platform that could have reshaped US foreign and trade policy more radically than at any point since the beginning of the Cold War. That was the time that Harry Truman helped build a consensus around US global leadership.

Mr Trump has indeed made some moves to shift away from this post-war orthodoxy - pursued by both Democratic and Republican presidents - such as building US-led alliances to expand the liberal democratic order. He has, for instance, scrapped US involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal with key allies in the Asia-Pacific and the Americas; withdrawn from the Paris climate change deal agreed to by over 170 nations; and launched a review of the North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) which may yet collapse in 2018.