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The Need to Reduce Allied Dependence on the U.S. in Asia

Chas Freeman makes some sensible recommendations about U.S. policy in Asia: The bottom line is that the return of Japan, South Korea and China to wealth and power and the impressive development of other countries in the region should challenge us to rethink the entire structure of our defense posture in Asia. Unable to live […]

Chas Freeman makes some sensible recommendations about U.S. policy in Asia:

The bottom line is that the return of Japan, South Korea and China to wealth and power and the impressive development of other countries in the region should challenge us to rethink the entire structure of our defense posture in Asia. Unable to live by our wallets, we must learn to live by our wits. In my view, President Nixon’s “Guam Doctrine” pointed the way. We need to find ways to ask Asians to do more in their own interest and their own defense. Our role should be to back them as our interests demand, not to pretend that we care more about their national-security interests or understand these better than they do, still less to push them aside to take on defense tasks on their behalf [bold mine-DL].

There seems to be a belief among many Americans that to reduce the dependency of Asian allies on the U.S. is to invite instability, arms races, and conflict, but there is a greater danger of being so overcommitted to allied security that the U.S. ends up defining it interests in the region according to what the allies want rather than what the U.S. needs. Freeman argues earlier in the article:

If Americans step forward to balance China for everyone else in the region, the nations of the Indo-Pacific will hang back and let us take the lead. And if we put ourselves between them and China, they will not just rely on us to back their existing claims against China, they will up the ante. It cannot make sense to empower the Philippines, Vietnam and others to pick our fights with China for us.

It’s also possible that some of China’s neighbors will feel empowered to pick those fights only to discover that the U.S. isn’t really willing to risk conflict with China on their account. That seems more likely to lead to escalating conflicts that China’s neighbors can’t win.

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