Milan Vaishnav
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has once again altered the contours of international politics. The second Trump administration has adopted a more assertive and unpredictable approach to U.S. foreign policy—deploying tariffs and other economic tools against both rivals and partners, expressing open hostility toward multilateral institutions, and pursuing a highly transactional, personalized style of diplomacy. These developments have unfolded amid intensifying geopolitical competition and the weakening of the post-Cold War international order, contributing to a more fluid and uncertain global landscape.
For India, this evolving context raises several important questions about the viability of its foreign policy approach. Over the past three decades, Indian foreign policy has been increasingly organized around a strategy of diversification—deepening cooperation with the United States and the West while also cultivating relationships across a wide range of regions and non-U.S.-aligned institutions. This approach, often described as “multi-alignment,” aims to secure the benefits of close ties with the West without incurring the costs of estrangement from other important partners, thereby preserving India’s strategic autonomy. The return of Trump brings into focus a fundamental question: To what extent is Trump 2.0 disrupting the foundations of India’s approach to the world, and where is it instead reinforcing longer-term trends that were already underway?
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