Download or read book The New US Strategy towards Asia written by William T Tow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-17 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barack Obama’s "rebalancing" or "pivot" strategy, intended to demonstrate continued US commitment to the Asia-Pacific region in a variety of military, economic, and diplomatic contexts, was launched with much fanfare in 2011. Implicit in the new strategy is both a focus on China – engagement with, and containment of – and a heavy reliance by the United States on its existing friends and allies in the region in order to implement its strategy. This book explores the impact of the new strategy on America’s regional friends and allies. It shows how these governments are working with Washington to advance and protect their distinct national interests, while at the same time avoiding any direct confrontation with China. It also addresses the reasons why many of these regional actors harbour concerns about the ability of the US to sustain the pivot strategy in the long run. Overall, the book illustrates the deep complexities of the United States’ exercise of power and influence in the region.
Download or read book U S Strategy in the Asian Century written by Abraham M. Denmark and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Indo-Pacific emerges as the world’s most strategically consequential region and competition with China intensifies, the United States must adapt its approach if it seeks to preserve its power and sustain regional stability and prosperity. Yet as China grows more powerful and aggressive and the United States appears increasingly unreliable, the Indo-Pacific has become riven with uncertainty. These dynamics threaten to undermine the region’s unprecedented peace and prosperity. U.S. Strategy in the Asian Century offers vital perspective on the future of power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific, focusing on the critical roles that American allies and partners can play. Abraham M. Denmark argues that these alliances and partnerships represent indispensable strategic assets for the United States. They will be necessary in any effort by Washington to compete with China, promote prosperity, and preserve a liberal order in the Indo-Pacific. Blending academic rigor and practical policy experience, Denmark analyzes the future of major-power competition in the region, with an eye toward American security interests. He details a pragmatic approach for the United States to harness the power of its allies and partners to ensure long-term regional stability and successfully navigate the complexities of the new era.
Download or read book By More Than Providence written by Michael J. Green and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon after the American Revolution, ?certain of the founders began to recognize the strategic significance of Asia and the Pacific and the vast material and cultural resources at stake there. Over the coming generations, the United States continued to ask how best to expand trade with the region and whether to partner with China, at the center of the continent, or Japan, looking toward the Pacific. Where should the United States draw its defensive line, and how should it export democratic principles? In a history that spans the eighteenth century to the present, Michael J. Green follows the development of U.S. strategic thinking toward East Asia, identifying recurring themes in American statecraft that reflect the nation's political philosophy and material realities. Drawing on archives, interviews, and his own experience in the Pentagon and White House, Green finds one overarching concern driving U.S. policy toward East Asia: a fear that a rival power might use the Pacific to isolate and threaten the United States and prevent the ocean from becoming a conduit for the westward free flow of trade, values, and forward defense. By More Than Providence works through these problems from the perspective of history's major strategists and statesmen, from Thomas Jefferson to Alfred Thayer Mahan and Henry Kissinger. It records the fate of their ideas as they collided with the realities of the Far East and adds clarity to America's stakes in the region, especially when compared with those of Europe and the Middle East.
Download or read book The United States and Asia written by and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2001 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Provided Annotation The past 20 years have been a time of relative peace in Asia and, not withstanding the 1997-1998 financial crisis, a period of robust economic growth as well. Currently, however, Asia is beset by a variety of problems that could well imperil the stability it has long enjoyed--including territorial disputes, nuclear rivalry, rising nationalist sentiments, and increased military capabilities. This report summarizes the manner in which the United States can best meet these challenges and thereby ensure continued peace and stability in the region. In the interests of this goal, the report outlines an integrated political, military, and economic strategy that the United States can pursue to inhibit the growth of rivalries in Asia and, more broadly, prevent the rise of instability in the region. Also delineated are changes in U.S. military posture that will be made necessary by this strategy.
Download or read book The Long Game written by Rush Doshi and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-11 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a century, no US adversary or coalition of adversaries - not Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, or the Soviet Union - has ever reached sixty percent of US GDP. China is the sole exception, and it is fast emerging into a global superpower that could rival, if not eclipse, the United States. What does China want, does it have a grand strategy to achieve it, and what should the United States do about it? In The Long Game, Rush Doshi draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, and a careful analysis of China's conduct to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. Taking readers behind the Party's closed doors, he uncovers Beijing's long, methodical game to displace America from its hegemonic position in both the East Asia regional and global orders through three sequential "strategies of displacement." Beginning in the 1980s, China focused for two decades on "hiding capabilities and biding time." After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it became more assertive regionally, following a policy of "actively accomplishing something." Finally, in the aftermath populist elections of 2016, China shifted to an even more aggressive strategy for undermining US hegemony, adopting the phrase "great changes unseen in century." After charting how China's long game has evolved, Doshi offers a comprehensive yet asymmetric plan for an effective US response. Ironically, his proposed approach takes a page from Beijing's own strategic playbook to undermine China's ambitions and strengthen American order without competing dollar-for-dollar, ship-for-ship, or loan-for-loan.
Download or read book The New Pacific Community written by Martin L Lasater and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-26 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the political and economic landscape in the Asian Pacific continues to shift, the United States must re-evaluate its strategy toward the region. In his book, Martin Lasater explores U.S. interests in Asia, considering strategies for attaining U.S. goals in the post-containment era. Citing numerous strategic options for the United States, Lasater recommends a strategy of integration as being best suited for the region through the end of the century.
Download or read book Elusive Balances written by Prashanth Parameswaran and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-13 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book undertakes an in-depth examination of the dynamics of commitment in U.S.-Southeast Asia strategy. Drawing on cases including the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and Washington’s pivot to Asia amid China’s growing regional role, it constructs an original balance of commitment model to explain continuity and change in U.S.-Southeast Asia policy. Balance of commitment goes beyond balance of power approaches to explains how translating Southeast Asia’s importance in U.S. thinking into actual commitments has proven challenging for policymakers as it requires simultaneously calibrating adjustments to power shifts, threat perceptions and resource extraction. The book applies the balance of commitment approach to several practical case studies, based on hundreds of conversations with policymakers and experts in the United States and Southeast Asia, personal experiences across nearly two decades and primary and secondary source material across a half-century. The findings suggest that the challenges of U.S. commitment to the region are rooted not simply in differences between administrations or divergences in outlook between Washington and regional capitals, but tough balancing acts for U.S. policymakers in domestic politics and wider foreign policy. As such, shaping U.S. strategy in Southeast Asia and calibrating and sustaining commitment requires not just appreciating Southeast Asia’s significance, but committing to the region in ways that manage structural aspects of U.S. thinking, capabilities and resourcing.
Download or read book Strategic Asia 2013 14 written by Ashley J. Tellis and published by NBR. This book was released on 2013-09-25 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2013-14 Strategic Asia volume examines the role of nuclear weapons in the grand strategies of key Asian states and assesses the impact of these capabilities—both established and latent—on regional and international stability. In each chapter, a leading expert explores the historical, strategic, and political factors that drive a country's calculations vis-a-vis nuclear weapons and draws implications for American interests.
Download or read book The United States and the Asia Pacific Region written by Ralph A. Cossa and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ongoing shifts in geopolitical power from West to East make the Asia-Pacific region more important to the United States today than ever before. The region is already an engine of the global economy, and major Asian countries are becoming global economic and political actors. Yet, as Asia's importance has grown over the last decade, Washington has often been focused elsewhere. The Obama administration needs a more active approach to the Asia-Pacific region that recognizes the new geopolitical realities and positions the United States to deal effectively with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Such a strategy must build upon America's long-standing positive engagement in Asia and articulate a vision that can advance U.S. interests and attract support from countries in the region.
Download or read book Asia Pacific Countries and the US Rebalancing Strategy written by David W.F. Huang and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-06-29 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the success of the US rebalancing (or pivot) strategy towards Asia, placing the US pivot in a historical context while highlighting its policy content and management dilemmas. Further, the contributors discuss the challenges and opportunities that each regional state confronts in responding to the US rebalancing strategy. In 2011, President Barack Obama laid out the framework for a strategic pivot of US policy towards the Asia Pacific region. Writers in this volume focus specifically on Asian perception of the strategy. Among the topics they explore are: China’s desire to be seen as equal to the US while maintaining foreign policy initiatives independent of the US strategic rebalance; the strengthening of Japan’s alliance with the US through its security policies; the use of US-China competition by South Korea to negotiate its influence in the region; and Australia’s embrace of the strategy as a result of foreign direct investment that provides economic benefits to the country.
Download or read book Strategy in Asia written by Thomas G Mahnken and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Helps to articulate those pressing strategic questions necessary in formulating―and executing―American strategy in this critical part of the world.” ―Military Review Some of the United States’ greatest challenges over the coming decades are likely to emanate from the Asia-Pacific region, with China’s and India’s rise and the persistence of militant Islam in parts of South and Central Asia, and the threat of nuclear proliferation continuing in fits and starts. If America is to meet these challenges comprehensively, strategists will have to learn more about Asia, and Asian scholars, policymakers, and analysts will need to understand better the enduring and timeless principles of strategy. Based on the premise therefore that the increasing strategic weight of the Asia-Pacific region warrants greater attention from both scholars and practitioners alike, Strategy in Asia: The Past, Present, and Future of Regional Security aims to marry the fields of strategic studies and Asian studies in order to help academics and practitioners to begin addressing these challenges. The book uses the lenses of geography, culture, and economics to examine in depth the strategic context that Asia presents to the major nations of the region—including the U.S. as a Pacific nation—and the strategic scenarios that may well play out in the region in the future. Specific attention is paid to Asia as a warfighting environment, and to the warfighting traditions and current postures of the major nations. “Opens windows into the key lenses of strategic studies namely, history, geography and politics, and secondarily, culture and economics.” —Asian Politics and Policy
Download or read book From Asia Pacific to Indo Pacific written by Robert G. Patman and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-24 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together a unique team of academics and practitioners to analyse interests, institutions, and issues affecting and affected by the transition from Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific has emerged as the world’s economic and strategic centre of gravity, in which established and rising powers compete with each other. As a strategic space, the Indo-Pacific reflects the rise of geo-political and geo-economic designs and dynamics which have come to shape the region in the early twenty-first century. These new dynamics contrast with the (neo-)liberal ideas and the seemingly increasing globalisation for which the once dominant ‘Asia-Pacific’ regional label stood.
Download or read book Asia Eyes America written by Jonathan D. Pollack and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2007 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains a collection of papers produced by participants (U.S. and regional scholars and analysts) at a conference, "Asia Eyes America," held at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, in May 2006. What are the implications of Asia's longer-term transformation for U.S. interests? How might change reconfigure American security requirements in the next decade and beyond? On what basis does United States reaffirm yet redefine its enduring commitment to regional order? This volume is a collaborative effort involving prominent specialists on both sides of the Pacific. The book focuses on underlying attitudes toward American power and policy, especially as viewed by strategic analysts within the region. Various contributors describe contradictory attitudes toward American power. Most states hope to deepen ties with the United States, while avoiding comprehensive envelopment in U.S. strategy. There is a tension between the preference for continued American regional involvement, while seeking to limit possibilities of highly intrusive U.S. policy interventions. Both considerations will continue to shape regional attitudes toward American power, especially U.S. military power--Publisher's description.
Download or read book United States Engagement in the Asia Pacific Perspectives from Asia Student Edition written by Sato, Yoichiro and published by Cambria Press. This book was released on 2015-07-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Note: this is an abridged version of the book with references removed. The complete edition is also available on this website. This study brings together Asian and Asia-based experts of international relations and U.S. foreign policy to present diverse Asian views about preferred modes of U.S. engagement in the region and compare their views with U.S. interests in the region-a prerequisite exercise to truly multilateral regional security governance. With the rise of Chinese power in absolute and relative terms over the next decades as a key driving factor of the international relations in the Asia Pacific, the United States has announced its "Rebalance to Asia" (previously referred as "Pivot to Asia") strategy. Asian responses, perceptions, and even interpretations of the U.S. strategy have been diverse. Misconceptions of the U.S. strategy can be attributed to the built-in contradictions among its objectives, deliberate ambiguities left by the architects of the strategy, mismatch between the stated strategy and actual policy implementations during the last three years, and subjective reading by the Asian countries through the lens of their own interests. This book will illuminate the diversity of Asian responses and perceptions and analyze the underlying reasons of the diversity. The overarching framework of analysis for this book is the very dilemma of alliances-abandonment and entrapment-which "hedging" aims at evading. "Abandonment" fear is primarily of the junior partner of an alliance that its senior partner may not come to its aid in crisis. Meanwhile, "entrapment" fear works both ways. The United States may drag its allies into its conflict against a third party, but U.S. allies may also drag the United States into their regional conflicts in which the United States has no direct or significant stake. The Asian choices of their strategic responses to the U.S. Rebalancing will be described and analyzed through the lens of the perceived balance between the abandonment and entrapment fears as well as other historical and domestic factors unique to each Asian country. The reading of the U.S. strategy by Asian countries is a subjective matter, and their interests likely influence their analysis and consequently strategies. It is not the aim of this volume to establish well defined "cause-and-effect" chain between the U.S. strategy and Asian strategies, but thick descriptions have enabled some chapter authors to identify reciprocal relations between the two. While China's growth is the most important driver of the changing strategic landscape in the Asia Pacific and the new U.S. strategy, the new U.S. strategy inevitably influence the Chinese strategy, which in turn triggers a chain reaction of strategic revisions in Asian countries. This book is essential reading for scholars in Asian politics, U.S. foreign policy, international relations as well as for policy makers.
Download or read book Avoiding the Trap written by David Lai and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The challenge for the U.S. administration, and for policy experts writ large, is to build an effective strategy for a whole-of-government action in moving forward from the ¿Rebalance,¿ in the direction of a free and open Indo-Pacific while avoiding the Thucydides Trap. This U.S. Army War College report provides analysis and policy recommendations on topics regarding the instruments of national power, regional affairs, and key Asia-Pacific countries. The key findings are rooted in the following overarching concepts:¿ Strategic Goal: Ensure American leadership, security, and prosperity.¿ Strategic Task: Accommodate China¿s rise through competition without conflict.¿ Strategic Vision: Economy by priority; enabled by military power; tempered by diplomacy.Getting the Indo-Pacific and relations with China right is the key to a peaceful and prosperous 21st Century.
Download or read book Correcting the Course How the Biden Administration Should Compete for Influence in the Indo Pacific written by Ashley Townshend and published by United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key judgements 1. The Biden administration’s approach to the Indo-Pacific has so far lacked focus and urgency. Despite its deep regional expertise and the region’s high expectations, it has failed to articulate a comprehensive regional strategy or treat the Indo-Pacific as its decisive priority. 2. The Biden administration’s focus on bringing normalcy back to US regional policy has restored the status quo, but not advanced its standing in the Indo-Pacific. 3. The Biden administration’s approach to competition with China has focused on the domestic and global arenas, rather than on competing for influence within the Indo-Pacific. 4. The Biden administration’s focus on long-term systems competition with China overlooks the urgency of near-term competition in the Indo-Pacific. 5. The Biden administration has placed strategic competition with China at the top of its foreign and security policy agenda. It has sought to balance US-China rivalry with opportunities for cooperation and efforts to stabilise the regional order. 6. The Biden administration views its Indo-Pacific allies as regional and international “force multipliers.” It has largely trained these alliances on global order issues, with few new initiatives at the regional level and insufficient focus on empowering allies to meet their own security needs. 7. The Biden administration sees the United States as being in a “systems competition” between democracy and autocracy. By making ideological competition with China an organising principle for US foreign policy, Washington risks undermining its attractiveness as a partner for politically diverse Indo-Pacific countries. 8. The Biden administration cannot compete against China effectively in the Indo-Pacific without prioritising engagement with Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. It has recognised the need to do more in Southeast Asia, but its success may be limited by its approach to competition with China and lack of an economic strategy. 9. The Biden administration, like its predecessors, lacks an economic strategy for the Indo-Pacific region. This major weakness in regional policy is driven by US protectionist trade preferences at home. Proposed initiatives on digital trade and infrastructure cannot compensate for the absence of a comprehensive trade-based economic approach. 10. The Biden administration views China as a predominantly long-term military challenge. Its efforts to minimise spending on US forward posture in the region suggest it may be less committed to a strategy of deterrence by denial to prevent Chinese aggression. Recommendations for the Biden administration To compete for influence in the Indo-Pacific, the Biden administration should: 1. Clearly identify the Indo-Pacific region as its foreign and defence policy priority and marshal resources accordingly. 2. Articulate clear goals for its relationship with China and its strategic position in the Indo-Pacific region. 3. Avoid emphasising ideological competition with China and instead focus on maximising its influence by responding to regional needs. 4. Signal its commitment to a strategy of deterrence by denial to prevent Chinese aggression and bolster its investments in Western Pacific military posture to reinforce its credibility. 5. Empower its allies to assume greater responsibility for their own defence requirements by reducing legislative and political obstacles to allied self-strengthening. 6. Pay special attention to Southeast Asia as a region of strategic importance, given its geography, size and the fluidity of its alignment dynamics. 7. Clearly signal that it is committed to mutually beneficial economic engagement with the Indo-Pacific and adopt trade and investment strategies that reinforce its role as an indispensable resident economic power.
Download or read book The Pivot to Asia written by Douglas T. Stuart and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-09-04 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Obama Administration deserves credit for assigning top priority to the Indo-Asia-Pacific (IAP) region; nonetheless, the President has faced serious problems in his implementation of the "pivot to Asia" strategy. This monograph begins with a discussion of the instruments of national power that were available to the Obama Administration in support of the pivot strategy. Since the United States was much stronger in terms of military resources than it was in terms of diplomatic, informational, and economic resources, the Obama Administration opted to build its pivot strategy on the foundation of the so-called San Francisco network of military relationships with regional friends and allies. The San Francisco system is impressive in terms of its military capabilities, its flexibility, and its adaptability, but it is also burdened with some defects. The most serious flaw is that it is geostrategically top-heavy, with two anchor points in Northeast Asia (South Korea and Japan) and a much less developed infrastructure of bases and troop concentrations throughout the rest of the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. Dr. Douglas T. Stuart notes that the vast size and complexity of the IAP region has made it impossible for the United States to pursue a one-size-fits-all pivot strategy. Rather, the Obama Administration has had to develop policies that resonate with the specific interests and concerns of each regional friend and ally. Not surprisingly, Washington has had mixed success in its efforts to recruit support among IAP governments. To illustrate this point, Dr. Stuart draws upon remarks by regional experts who are contributors to a recently published volume by William Tow and Douglas Stuart, eds., The New US Strategy Towards Asia: Adapting to the American Pivot (New York: Routledge, 2015). Virtually all of these experts express some doubts about America's ability to sustain the pivot strategy over the long term. This monograph then focuses on U.S.-China relations, with particular emphasis on debates among representatives of two schools of thought: * "Containers," people who are inclined to focus on worst-case scenarios and favor the explicit or implicit containment of China. This group is criticized for risking a "self-fulfilling prophesy"; and,* "Adapters," people who argue that Washington must make room for China, both in the region and in the world. These individuals are criticized for "self-deluding optimism." Dr. Stuart also discusses the arguments of "Game Changers," those who challenge the assumption that China will continue to rise as an economic and military power. In a situation in which the Obama Administration cannot make a definitive choice in favor of one of these schools of thought, it has opted for a policy of "hedging" in order to keep its options open. Unfortunately, it is a comment on the tragic nature of international relations that hedging policies are likely to be interpreted negatively by the target of such actions-thus moving both nations closer to what Graham Allison calls the "Thucydides Trap." Dr. Stuart recommends certain policies that may make this unwanted development less likely.The final section of this monograph looks beyond the Western Pacific, noting the growing importance of India and Beijing's efforts to expand its influence into Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Dr. Stuart also discusses the problems that the Obama Administration has been forced to confront in other countries, such as Ukraine, Libya, and Syria among others that have complicated its efforts to keep the U.S. focus on the pivot strategy in the IAP region. Dr. Stuart concludes with some lessons for strategists, derived from the Obama team's experience with the pivot.
