Ashley J. Tellis
The tumultuous 100 days after Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency have been disruptive for the United States and the world. Despite New Delhi’s feigned optimism, U.S.-Indian relations have been disturbed as well. For a quarter century now, bilateral ties between Washington and New Delhi had been dramatically improving, as successive U.S. administrations—including Trump’s during his first term—wooed India in the context of the competition with China.
The embrace of India intensified during Joe Biden’s presidency, when New Delhi was viewed as an intimate collaborator in Washington’s efforts at confronting Beijing. Consequently, India’s domestic illiberalism and trade mercantilism were discounted as administration officials sought to build new partnerships in high technology, entice businesses diversifying from China to invest in India, and position India as a new manufacturing node to limit China’s industrial dominance. These goals aligned perfectly with India’s own ambitions to expand its national power, which had the virtue of—at least transitorily—aiding the United States to cement its geopolitical dominance and protect the liberal international order.
Trump’s return has altered the traditional direction of U.S. grand strategy in dramatic ways. His administration’s striking contempt for the liberal order is now clear, but it is also accompanied by atavistic attempts at territorial expansionism, the imposition of “reciprocal” tariffs on U.S. trading partners, and confrontations with many U.S. allies worldwide.
