The Obama administration's strategic pivot to Asia: From a diplomatic to a strategic constrainment of an emergent China?

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

International Studies

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Korean Journal of Defense Analysis

Volume

25

Issue

3

First Page

331

Last Page

349

Publication Date

9-9-2013

Abstract

This article examines the connection between President Barack Obama's 2011 Strategic Pivot to Asia and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2010 Hanoi Declaration on the South China Sea dispute. Secretary Clinton's statement during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in July 2010 evoked a new diplomatic strategy in confronting an emergent and assertive China-constrainment. This strategy involved Washington working with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-states in persuading China to adhere to a multilateral approach in resolving the South China Sea issue. However, China admonished the ASEAN states not to follow the U.S. bidding. As a major economic partner and an occasional political ally of most ASEAN states, China subsequently thwarted the U.S. design to form a regional bloc for a constrainment policy. Failing diplomatically, the Obama administration is rebalancing U.S. naval /air forces toward the Asia-Pacific region. This marks a shift from a diplomatic constrainment policy to a pivot strategy that is predicated on American military power. © 2013 Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

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Disciplines

International Relations

Keywords

Boundary disputes; South China Sea—Boundaries--Southeast Asia; Southeast Asia—Boundaries--South China Sea; United States--Foreign relations--Asia; Asia--Foreign relations--United States

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