America's 45th President has promised a new foreign policy based around the doctrine of "America First," a phrase he used repeatedly during his campaign and emphasized in his inaugural address. Historically, the term has suggested a policy isolationism, protectionism, pacifism—and xenophobia. It was a potent force in US politics right up to Dec. 7 1941.

Does Mr. Trump use the term in the same way as it was used before WWII?How will the president's version of America First alter the usual course of postwar US foreign policy? Can it succeed on its own terms? Is the US becoming an isolationist nation again? What does it mean for close US allies such as Japan and other Asian democracies? And how should Japan's public and elites think about the US in the age of Trump?

Mr. Stephens emphasized the political, economic and strategic implications of this new American order.