EVENTS

Date:	Monday, January 12, 2009
Time:	3:30 PM -- 5:00 PM
Location:	Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

 

As Asia Rises, How Should the United States Prepare?

 

 

WASHINGTON, JANUARY 15, 2009--Foremost among the numerous foreign policy challenges that Barack Obama will face upon his inauguration Tuesday is the transformation occurring in the Asia Pacific, a series of developments that has not drawn the attention it deserves from U.S. policymakers. At an event on January 12, AEI's Dan Blumenthal and Princeton University's Aaron Friedberg released their new report, An American Strategy for Asia, in which they argue that the "massive, rapid shift in the distribution of global wealth and power toward Asia . . . will fundamentally alter the structure of the international system and the character of great power politics."

The report outlines a strategy for Asia through which Washington can confront and manage the ongoing regional transformation. American objectives in the region, Blumenthal and Friedberg contend, should be to prevent the domination of Asia by a hostile power or coalition of powers, and to help Asian countries build a region that is "prosperous, peaceful, and free."

Friedberg explained that among the many obstacles to U.S. involvement in Asia, "China, in our view, is really the key." It is the one country capable of dominating the entire region, and its participation is necessary to make a "prosperous, peaceful, and free" Asia a reality. To address China's rise, the United States should adjust the "mixed strategy" of engagement and balance that former administrations have adopted. The goals of engagement, Friedberg added, are "to reduce the risks of conflict, to reap the gains of cooperation, [and] to encourage a process of political reform and liberalization in China." Meanwhile, he said, the United States should adopt policies to "preserve a favorable balance of power in East Asia . . . which, as a result, deters the possibility of aggression and limits the prospects of war or conflict." Blumenthal added that the United States must also hedge against China, preparing for a host of different outcomes--including the failure of engagement and the outbreak of conflict.

In moving forward, the U.S. response should be a simple one, Blumenthal said: "Pay more attention. . . . Asia is and will continue to be--and maybe even increase in importance as--an arena of high politics, high diplomacy, issues of war and peace. . . . A conflict between the nations in Asia would almost certainly draw in the United States in one form or another, and [it] has the potential to involve weapons of mass destruction."

--MICHAEL MAZZA

For video, audio, and event information, visit www.aei.org/event1861/. To read the report, visit www.aei.org/publication29144/.

For media inquiries, contact Veronique Rodman at 202.862.4870 or vrodman@aei.org.

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