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.

US Policy in the Asia-Pacific Region: Meeting the Challenges of the Post Cold War Era

"When China surpassed Japan as the world’s second largest economy in 2010, it signaled to the United States (US) it was time to reevaluate and revise policies in the Asia-Pacific region. The 2018 American National Defense Strategy reflects this shift. It states US goals are to maintain national security and a favorable regional power balance through expanded alliances and partnerships, openness and prosperity, deterring aggression, maintaining stability, and ensuring free access to common domains. However, traditional US strategies and policies are insufficient to meet these objectives in an interconnected age. The Asia-Pacific region has a complicated past that drives interdependence stemming from histories involving imperialism, colonialism, and great power actions after World War II (WWII), and there are often pervasive constructivist and liberal ideologies to complicate international relations. Additionally, regional stability “requires reinforcing political, economic, and military structures and processes that reduce the natural tendency of the members of a power balance to test the other side’s resolve.” These factors force the US to avoid military-only policies or consider each country in a vacuum. Unfortunately, many experts recommend extreme strategies and most only consider relations between the US and one other country at a time. Few, like Michael Swaine, suggest nuanced, regional strategies. To address these policy challenges, the US must pursue a new, hybrid approach, adopting many (but not all) of Swaine’s recommendations, and taking attributes from a variety of other strategies. Overall, the US must seek balance and peace between great powers, nuclear non-proliferation, and reduction of the scope of military engagement to when only truly necessary, a tenet of “selective engagement” strategies. The US will rely on countries in the region to check bad actors and limit active involvement to the greatest extent possible, a common emphasis of “offshore balancing” strategies. In addition, the US must accept an open world, where sovereign independence is accepted and international cooperation is encouraged, regardless of a country’s internal domestic issues. Therefore, the US must enact parallel, integrated policies for each country in the region that reflect a “whole of government” approach, leveraging tailored diplomatic, informational, military, and economic elements of power. These policies will focus on providing China a larger regional security role, denuclearizing and withdrawing US forces from Korea, securing relations with Japan, increasing allied capability, and improving trade and investment across the region."--Introduction.

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.

Now in a fully revised and updated edition, this cogent book provides an overview of the historical context and enduring patterns of U.S. relations with Asia. Noted scholar Robert G. Sutter offers a balanced analysis of post–Cold War dynamics in Asia, which involve interrelated questions of security, economics, national identity, and regional institution building. He demonstrates how these critical concerns manifest a complex mix of realist, liberal, and constructivist tendencies that define the regional order. He describes how the United States has responded to Asia’s growing strength and importance while at the same time trying to maintain its leading position as an Asian power despite China’s rising influence. Considering the most important transition in American policy toward Asia since the end of the Cold War, Sutter assesses the growing U.S.-China rivalry that now dominates both regional dynamics in the Asia-Pacific and U.S. policy in the region.

This book provides a multifaceted analysis of the so-called US 'rebalance' (or 'pivot') toward Asia by focusing on the diplomatic, military, and economic dimensions of the American policy shift in the Asia Pacific region.

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.

Since World War II the United States has been heavily involved in the Asia-Pacific region. Immediately following the war our national interest in that region was obvious--the stabilization and rehabilitation of Japan. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. became involved with the defeat/containment of communism. The U.S. had

As the cold war ends, the United States is being forced to reassess the dominant role it has played in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific during the decades that followed World War II. Bringing readers up to date on policy trends in the area, the author provides a general overview as well as detailed analyses of key issues in individual nations and regions. The author concludes by placing these regional developments in the context of the ongoing debate in the United States over an appropriate foreign policy in the post-cold war world.

Investigating the dynamics of balancing patterns in the Asia-Pacific, this book focuses particularly on the contribution of great powers and middle powers to regional stability. Taking the US and China as great powers, and using ASEAN, Russia, Australia and South Korea as example of middle powers, the author addresses the following questions: Do middle powers influence balancing patterns in the Asia-Pacific? Are the United States and China balancing each other in the Asia-Pacific, and if so, by which means? What is the contribution of the English school to understanding balance of power dynamics? The Balance of Power in Asia-Pacific Security makes a persuasive contribution to the debate on the US-China relationship. Interviews with policy practitioners and academics in the region offer a systematic analysis of the complexities of Asia-Pacific security. Providing conceptual insights, this book gives a fresh understanding of the mechanisms necessary to maintain regional stability and explains the implications of US-China power balancing for global security. It will be an important resource for scholars and students of Asia-Pacific politics and security.