"The rhetoric is certainly a departure from what we're used to," said Munter in the interview that aired on February 2. "For 70 years, the American policy has been that by extending itself outwards, by having solidarity with other countries, by having alliances, American interests are served. So this idea of America First implies that what has happened in the past has not somehow been in America's interest," he argued.

Munter said if America was turning inward, there was now a question of  America's ability to define what happens overseas and whether America's role is crucial anymore. "That's something very very new because there's never been a period since the second World War when America hasn't been part of either—in people's perception—the solution or the problem.

This change is "very troubling," said Munter, if "other people are left to think there are other ways to solve problems and many of those may not be consistent with the values that America has traditionally espoused." 

"There's a qualitative concern that—without America there, without America giving content to the values that we've always talked about—the world may be a more dangerous place and certainly a more uncertain and volatile place in the years to come," Munter said.

Listen to the full interview on Voice of America here.