The Trump administration's disruptive efforts to reshape the international landscape and trade order have not only failed to meet their intended goals but have also damaged the U.S. image as a reliable global power, according to international policy experts.
A recent survey by global polling research firm Ipsos showed a sharp decline in America's reputation, with the proportion of people who believe the U.S. will have a positive influence on world affairs dropping in 26 out of 29 countries over the past six months.
Many believe that this decline is partly due to the disruptive policies implemented by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, despite him having only been in office for 100 days.
"Trump prides himself as being a disruptor and he has sought to hand out disruption to the international relation system, not just writ large on international relations, but also to the multilateral trading order and to the related international engagements and rules and norms. The problem has been that in the course of trying to force disruption on the system, he has effectively lost control over his disruptive tendencies. That is his problem at this point of time. In the course of trying to create disruption, he has lost control over the process and now he is retreating and trying to manufacture a certain degree of recontrol over the process, if he can," said Sourabh Gupta, a senior Asia-Pacific international relations policy specialist from the Institute for China-America Studies.
As the fallout from the Trump administration's policies continues to unfold, the world's view of the United States has also shifted negatively. Experts suggest that this change in perception is more than just a temporary setback and could have long-lasting effects.
"The U.S. international image has declined dramatically as compared with the time before the administration began. I think a major reason is that the world at large no longer views the U.S. as a responsible power, not a reliable power, and more as a source of chaos and even risk, both political and economic risk. In the years to come, I think some of the behaviors we saw from Trump today will continue to repeat and the rest of the world will gradually get used to it. And people who will say, look, that is what the U.S. is today," said Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies of Fudan University.
Disruptive US policies fail to meet goals, damage its global reputation: experts
