Russia's foreign policy in the far east is laid down b Giers before he dies- that Russia could not suffer a Japanese Korea as that would lead to the choking off Russia's far eastern provinces. It wold be the creation of a second Bosphorus. I don't see Alexander straying from that line anymore than Nicholas but he'd be less likely to pay for the defense bills leaving Russia even weaker. One can argue over the details and and implementation would be different but that is just speculation
As Foreign Minister, Giers managed to keep Russia out of military conflicts and he died in 1895 after enduring ill health for a number of years. How was an aggressive Russian foreign policy in the east, heavily inspired by a long dead Foreign Minister, who had a reputation as a pacifist? A cornerstone of Alexander's rule was the avoidance of foreign military conflict and Russian eastern aspirations would have been subordinated to that priority. I would "speculate" that Russian foreign policy in the East under Alexander would not be hijacked (per OTL) by foreign policy hawks or private interests.
I understand Witte was a foreign policy dove and OTL during the 1890s used his position as Finance Minister to keep a tight reign on military budgets. Alexander also had a reputation as a pacifist, but had a solid grasp of military matters. It is doubtful the Russian overall military spending through the 1890s would be significantly less than OTL, but certainly priorities might be different.
As for Witte- Alexander picked ministers to implement his policies not the other way around.
Agreed and Alexander had already recognised Witte as his most capable minister as evidenced by his rapid promotion. Witte was also a royalist, a pacifist and a conservative, which happened to reconcile with Alexander's world view. It is my opinion those policies espoused by Witte, would not be inconsistent with those ultimately adopted by Alexander.
Witte's policies don't vary much from Vyshnegradski's so the general economic policy would stay the same.
Agreed, which is why I believe Russia is likely to maintain a similar path until around 1899 when OTL Witte started to lose his influence over Nicholas.
Alexander would have trimmed Witte's sails long before Nicholas- a minister stepping out of his field was never tolerated
Why? In matters of state Witte understood and generally agreed with Alexander, who would not have the same insecurities as Nicholas. Indeed, on his death bed Alexander couselled his son to listen well to Witte, so it is reasonable to assume that Alexander would have retained confindence in his Finance minister given his OTL strong performance.
In any event, the revolutionary violence predates the Japanese War with the first acts of violence in 1902. Alexander was bullheaded and set in his ways so he's not going to suddenly listen to Yerolov and reform Russian agriculture
There were ongoing acts of revolutionary violence in the decades preceeding the Russo-Japanese war including the assasination of Alexander II (father) and Alexander III's death is often attributed to an injury sustained during another such assasination attempt.
I think political/representational reform would stagnate, but I don't think Alexander had anything against economic progress. I doubt if Alexander would have too many objections to advances in animal husbandry, but there are likely to be strong opinions on land reform. Land reform would probably have more impact the landed nobles than Alexander, so intrigue abounds.