US Strategy in the Western Pacific, 1890 to present

Historically, US strategy abroad has prioritized Europe, but the Pacific and East Asia have always played a part, especially from the late 19th century forward. With the end of the Cold War and the rise of China in this century, East Asia and the Pacific have come to the forefront, but not without a balancing of priorities with Europe and the Middle East. That balancing has become all the more difficult due to political polarization in the United States. The best hope for the future rests in the ability of the traditional mainstreams of the Republican and Democratic parties to come together on a global strategy as they did under FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower that balances the complex interests of the United States in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia with an increasing focus on the latter. Given the severity of China’s challenge to US interests, the failure to achieve consensus on a strategy and its execution could have fatal consequences.