Deal-makers and Spoilers: Trump and Regime Security in Southeast Asia

Deal-makers and Spoilers: Trump and Regime Security in Southeast Asia The early days of the Trump administration have shown him to be what he appeared to be during the campaign and in his earlier career: narcissistic, capricious and willing to play to the anxieties and prejudices of the crowd. Although his administration remains far from fully formed — as of mid-February 2017, Trump had nominated just 34 officials for 549 positions, and only 14 of his cabinet nominees had been confirmed — its basic contours are clear enough. He has chosen a cabinet and advisory team that includes people who advocate greater protections and freedoms for US businesses, who have expressed extreme anti-Muslim and socially conservative attitudes and who deny that humans are responsible for climate change. The administration has taken bellicose positions against key trading partners, including Mexico and , and threatened further escalation of trade confrontation and retaliation against US firms that do not respond to the call to put “America First”. Trump has already withdrawn the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the multilateral trade agreement that had formed the main economic plank of the Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia. Added to these damaging policy positions, there is the promise of an unconventional and confrontational approach to policy-making. is Professor in the Department of Management and International Business at the University of Auckland. Postal address: Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand; email: n.hamilton-hart@auckland.ac.nz. 01 Roundtable-3P.indd 42 Deal-makers and Spoilers: Trump and Regime Security in Southeast Asia 43 In the words of one observer, the White House team looks “less like a professional political operation than a mediaeval court with various barons and a crown prince...