- Washington will lean heavily on its regional allies to continue countering China amid ongoing conflicts elsewhere, analysts say
- But no other regional power carries the same clout – as resentment grows in some quarters about US support of Israel and lack of economic engagement
In the high-stakes game of geopolitics, the United States finds its strategic gaze once again diverted away from the Asia-Pacific by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, raising questions about the resilience of its alliances and the future of its influence in a region shadowed by China’s ambitions.
The US inevitably being distracted from the region is not a concern to which Secretary of State Antony Blinken would concede. Earlier this month, he told reporters that Washington will maintain an “intense” focus on the Asia-Pacific despite global conflicts elsewhere.
But history shows such promises are likely to go unfulfilled, according to Anu Anwar, a non-resident associate at Harvard University’s Fairbank Centre for Chinese Studies.
“One of the ironies of contemporary US foreign policy”, Anwar said, is that the last three administrations “all sought to laser focus on the Indo-Pacific region”.
“Yet, they all got distracted by events in other parts of the world,” he said, noting that if the Gaza conflict spreads and the war in Ukraine further escalates, “the US will undoubtedly have to divert its resources that would otherwise be allocated to the Indo-Pacific region.”
One need only go back to 2011 to find comparable circumstances. Then, in a bid to counter China’s growing influence, President Barack Obama’s administration announced that the US would “pivot” to Asia by rebalancing its resources and priorities towards the world’s most populous continent.
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