Experience tells us to discount at least half of what is said during presidential campaigns: Ronald Reagan was going to recognize Taiwan; Jimmy Carter was going to withdraw U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula; etc. The challenge is predicting correctly which half to discount.
It's still anyone's guess what the Donald Trump administration's Asia policy will be, but in the absence of strong evidence to the contrary, consistency is most likely to prevail.
Barack Obama's "pivot" toward Asia will likely exit when he does. Still, the centrality of U.S. alliances has been a bipartisan constant since the end of World War II and America's focus on Asia as a national security priority has enjoyed bipartisan support since the end of the Cold War. President-elect Trump's assurances to South Korean President Park Geun-hye that he was committed to a "strong, firm" alliance and that America would be with South Korea "until the end" provide the first strong indication that U.S. alliances and commitments in Asia will continue.
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