The Asia-Pacific is the world’s most economically dynamic region, where the specter of a power imbalance looms large. The new U.S. strategy — part of President Barack Obama’s 2012 strategic guidance for the Pentagon — calls for “rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific.”
The Asia-Pacific is the world’s most economically dynamic region, where the specter of a power imbalance looms large. The new U.S.strategy — part of President Barack Obama’s 2012 strategic guidance for the Pentagon — calls for “rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific.” (1) This “rebalancing” is already under way, as is apparent from America’s warming relationships with India and Vietnam, policy shift toward Burma (Myanmar), and planned deployment of 2,500 Marines at a new forward-staging base in Darwin, Australia, that is to serve as a launch pad for Southeast Asia. The United States is also building up forces on its territory of Guam, a key strategic enclave in the Pacific much like the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.