Trump's Education and Southeast Asia

At this early stage of the Trump administration, one can only make partially informed guesses, and this is the spirit in which this essay is written. The author would wager that Trump is more educable on security issues than he is on economic issues. If that is the case, they should expect to see more continuity than change in the administration's approach to security in East and Southeast Asia on the one hand, but, on the other hand, change -- in worrisome directions -- rather than continuity is likely to characterize the administration's economic policies towards the region. He concludes by noting that contentious economic relations between the US and East/Southeast Asia are also likely to spill over into the security realm, making the region tenser and more prone to military crises than during the Obama years. By educable he means the willingness to listen to alternative viewpoints, digest the information and change one's mind.