The overview of international affairs in 2017 could be described as “RA2 .” Major countries of the world will “Re-Assess” or “Re-Arrange” their original policy goals and priorities, which will result in a complex international environment.

The election of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential elections in November 2016 will exert a profound influence on international politics, economy and diplomacy.

While President-elect Trump is expected to carry out many of the Republican Party’s original policies in the domestic sphere, his foreign policy will take the path of “new isolationism,” based on minimal U.S. intervention and the principle of “America First.”

Trump’s foreign policy will especially be focused on containing, or “bashing” China, which has been rising to a new superpower status for the last few decades.

This transformation of U.S. foreign policy will result in a major change in great power relations surrounding Northeast Asia, including U.S.-China, U.S.-Russia, U.S.-Japan, China-Russia, and Russia-Japan relations. The change will affect the situation on the Korean Peninsula as well.

Nevertheless, whether these changes will lead to the promotion of common goods and progression of human history, or a partial retrogression, is still unclear. Thus, international relations of 2017 will, as a saying in an ancient Chinese book goes: “seem to be moving but actually static (若動而靜),” and “seem to be progressing forward but actually standing still (似去而留).”