THE DIRECTION OF THE UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY UNDER THE SECOND TERM OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: FROM LIBERAL HEGEMONY TO AMERICA UNBOUND?

Abstract

This article analyzes the direction of United States foreign policy under the second administration of Donald Trump, conceptualized as a shift from America First toward what can be termed America Unbound. While Trump’s first term emphasized nationalist retrenchment within existing international structures, his second term demonstrates a more radical orientation characterized by intensified unilateralism, transactional diplomacy, and systematic disengagement from multilateral institutions and global governance regimes. This shift reflects not merely a change in policy style, but a deeper transformation in the role of the United States within the international system. Using a qualitative descriptive method and a foreign policy analysis framework, this study examines three core dimensions: alliance politics, great power competition, and U.S. engagement with the Global South. Through document analysis and thematic interpretation, the article shows how strategic partnerships are increasingly treated as conditional and transactional arrangements, how competition with China and Russia is pursued through bilateral pressure rather than coalition-building, and how engagement with developing regions becomes selective and instrumental. The findings suggest that Trump’s second-term foreign policy accelerates the erosion of the liberal international order, weakens institutionalized alliances, and replaces rule-based leadership with power-based bargaining. The article contributes to International Relations scholarship by offering a conceptual distinction between nationalist retrenchment and post-liberal hegemonic behavior, thereby providing a new analytical lens for understanding contemporary transformations in global order.