What we find is a textbook case of strategic overreach meeting geopolitical reality—a familiar pattern for anyone who has studied America’s post-Cold War foreign policy adventures. The pivot, later rebranded as the more diplomatically palatable “rebalance,” was sold as America’s recognition that the future lay in Asia, not the Middle East.The strategy’s key areas included “strengthening bilateral security alliances; deepening our working relationships with emerging powers, including with China; engaging with regional multilateral institutions; expanding trade and investment; forging a broad-based military presence; and advancing democracy and human rights.”
tirsdag 16. september 2025
US ‘pivot to Asia’ never happened and likely never will
More than a decade after President Barack Obama first announced America’s “pivot to Asia” in 2011, it’s time for an honest autopsy of what was supposed to be the defining strategic reorientation of the 21st century.
What we find is a textbook case of strategic overreach meeting geopolitical reality—a familiar pattern for anyone who has studied America’s post-Cold War foreign policy adventures. The pivot, later rebranded as the more diplomatically palatable “rebalance,” was sold as America’s recognition that the future lay in Asia, not the Middle East.The strategy’s key areas included “strengthening bilateral security alliances; deepening our working relationships with emerging powers, including with China; engaging with regional multilateral institutions; expanding trade and investment; forging a broad-based military presence; and advancing democracy and human rights.”
What we find is a textbook case of strategic overreach meeting geopolitical reality—a familiar pattern for anyone who has studied America’s post-Cold War foreign policy adventures. The pivot, later rebranded as the more diplomatically palatable “rebalance,” was sold as America’s recognition that the future lay in Asia, not the Middle East.The strategy’s key areas included “strengthening bilateral security alliances; deepening our working relationships with emerging powers, including with China; engaging with regional multilateral institutions; expanding trade and investment; forging a broad-based military presence; and advancing democracy and human rights.”
