Abstract
This chapter is an examination of the Obama “pivot” in a context where American power has been deeply entrenched for 70 years. To say there is some sort of shift toward the Asia/Pacific implies that the USA “left” the Region at some point, but of course, it never did. Instead, it has hundreds of military bases thorough the region, and stations 80,000 troops in two allied but competitive countries, Japan and South Korea. Washington can extend the reach of its power, through air and naval forces, into every part of this vast region. Indeed, since 1945, the Pacific itself has been essentially an American lake.
A longer, and revised version of this paper appeared in Yoneyuki Sugita, ed., Japan Viewed from Interdisciplinary Perspectives: History and Prospects (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015).
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Notes
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1 The first section of my paper is a revised and updated version of an article, “Why Obama Is Looking West,” I published in Pacific Standard in April 2012.
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2 Peter Goodspeed, “Obama Looks to Counter China’s Influence with Australian Naval Base,” National Post, November 15, 2011, http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/peter-goodspeed-u-s-looks-to-assert-itself-in-pacific-region-with-australian-naval-base; Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker, “Panetta to Offer Strategy for Cutting Military Budget,” New York Times, January 2, 2012.
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3 Spencer Ackerman, “Humans Lose, Robots Win in New Defense Budget,” January 26, 2012, http://www.wired.com/2012/01/humans-robots-budget/
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4 I researched this and discussed it at length in Cumings, The Origins of the Korean War, v. 2 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990): 45–54.
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5 Ian Easton, “China’s Deceptively Weak (and Dangerous) Military,” Diplomat, January 31, 2014, http://thediplomat.com/2014/01/chinas-deceptively-weak-and-dangerous-military/
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6 I discuss this phenomenon at greater length in Dominion From Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American Power (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
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7 Friedman, “The World According to Maxwell Smart, Part 1,” New York Times, July 13, 2014, Op-ed page.
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8 Martin Jacques, When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World, (New York: Penguin Press, 2009).
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9 Ibid., 353–354.
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10 Ibid., 6, 43–44.
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11 Giovanni Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21 st Century (London and New York: Verso, 2007).
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12 David Shambaugh, Modernizing China’s Military: Progress, Problems, and Prospects (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 39, 307–327.
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13 Robert Gates, “Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates,” US Department of Defense, Saturday, May 8, 2010, http://archive.defense.gov/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1467
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14 Yabuki Susumu and Mark Selden, “The Origins of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Dispute between China, Taiwan and Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal 12, issue 2, no. 3, January, 13, 2014, http://www.japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/4061/article.pdf
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15 Helen Cooper and Jane Perlez, “U.S. Sway in Asia is Imperiled as China Challenges Alliances,” New York Times, May 30, 2014.
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16 Itsunori Onodera (Japan’s Defense Minister), “Japan’s New Security and Defense Policy: An Enduring Partnership in the U.S.-Japan Alliance,” (Remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies), 4, July 11, 2014, http://csis.org/files/attachments/20140711CSISspeechENG.pdf
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17 Jane Perlez, “Chinese Leader’s One-Man Show Complicates Diplomacy,” New York Times, July 9, 2014, A10.
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18 Kishore Mahbubani, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East (New York: Public Affairs, 2008).
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19 Henry Luce, “The American Century,” Life Magazine, February 17, 1941.
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20 Quoted in Wang Chaohua, ed., One China, Many Paths (London and New York: Verso, 2003): 232, 322.
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Cumings, B. (2016). The Obama “Pivot” to Asia in a Historical Context of American Hegemony. In: Huang, D. (eds) Asia Pacific Countries and the US Rebalancing Strategy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-93453-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-93453-9_2
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