VOA常速英语:特朗普的外交政策成焦点

President Trump said he changed his mind about pulling troops out of Afghanistan,pledging to boost U.S. forces to help the Afghan government.But he insists his plan is different from previous ones in the 16-year-long war.

“We are a partner and a friend, but we will not dictate to the Afghan people how to live, or how to govern their own complex society.We are not nation-building again. We are killing terrorists.”

Trump campaigned with the slogan “America First”,but some experts stress this does not mean America is retreating from the world stage under his leadership.

“There are kind of three critical parts of the world that the United States really needs to be stable right?Europe, the Middle East and Asia, so you’ve seen a heavy focus on all three of those.And it’s not about the withdrawal or retreat of American power.It’s actually about putting American power out there and not just military power, but also economic and diplomatic power.”

Previous U.S. presidents also embraced using different levers of US power,but experts say Trump has broken with precedent by putting less focus on international trade, alliances and institutions.

“I think if I had to characterize it, it would be a muscular, but highly risk averse, nationalistic ‘America First’ strategy.”

Trump has not only advocated a narrower foreign policy, but he has embraced a more ambiguous one.His tweets are closely followed as indications of U.S. policy, but experts say they sometimes lead to confusion.Many look to others in Trump’s cabinet for reassurance about U.S. strategy.

“It seems to me that he is just uNPRedictable and U.S. foreign policy is in uncharted territory.But his team around him, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the national security advisor,I think they are trying to keep policy within some sort of more conventional boundaries.”

Katulis told VOA he is concerned though because he thinks there has been a trend for the last 15 years of a militarization of U.S. foreign policy,a huge increase in the budget to the Defense Department,and a heavy reliance under Presidents Bush, and then Obama, on special forces and drones,that trend appears to be continuing under Trump.

Cindy Saine, VOA news, the State Department.