Hyping threats from Russia, China, and the rest of the world, the U.S. War Party is gearing up to reassert American power.
The Three-War Doctrine
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Obama in Asia: Washington Extracts Rent-free Basing from the Philippines
By linking itself to Washington in its territorial disputes with China, the Philippines risks getting caught up in a superpower conflict.
World Cuts Back Military Spending, But Not Asia
Driven by a rising China and arms exports from the United States, military spending in Asia is on the increase.
A Budding Alliance: Vietnam and the Philippines Confront China
The Philippines and Vietnam are natural allies in their common territorial struggles against China. But they should leave Washington out of it.
A Brewing Storm in the Western Pacific
A storm is brewing in the Western Pacific. As the Asia-Pacific region descends into a period of destabilizing conflict, the Philippines is quickly becoming a frontline state in the U.S. strategy to contain China—the central thrust of the Obama administration’s...
Washington Debates the Pivot to Asia
Over the last two years, the Obama administration has executed what the president has termed the “Pivot to Asia” strategy, whereby the United States’ global military force posture is being reconfigured to focus on the Asia-Pacific region as Washington’s central front. Containment of China is the aim of the Pivot strategy, which has drawn criticism from liberal critics of the policy.
Four More Years: The Asia Pivot
The United States is a Pacific power, but Asia is a very different place than it was two hundred years ago. You can’t dispatch “Chinese” Gordon and a couple of gunboats and get your way anymore. Nor can you deal with rivals by building Cold War-style alliances and threatening to use force. The world is too small, Asia is too big, and war would be catastrophic. The Pacific is no one’s “lake,” but an ocean vast enough for all.
Raising the Stakes in Asia
While the proponents of the U.S. pivot to Asia argue that it enhances regional security, it is in reality precipitating a much more explicit Sino-American rivalry, thus undermining the prospects of an amicable and pluralistic regional order. Ultimately, America’s growing military presence in the region could backfire, giving birth to what it dearly seeks to prevent.
Alawites Against Assad
A new Syrian opposition group is trying to resurrect the nonviolent tactics that the opposition used during the first few months of the rebellion last year, when demonstrations and calls for civic activism filled the squares of towns across Syria. But more important is who formed the group: Syrian Alawites.
Review: Obama and China’s Rise
The main geostrategic challenge facing Asia—as well as the U.S. presence there—has been the extraordinary rise of China in the past decade. In Obama and China’s Rise, Jeffrey Bader, a veteran diplomat of over 30 years, recounts his experiences working for Obama’s presidential campaign and serving as the senior director for East Asian affairs on Obama’s National Security Council from January 2009 to April 2011.