Global News
In a city routinely gridlocked over how to cut spending, no one seemed to notice in Washington this week when Hillary Clinton proposed a vast expansion of US interests.
One of the most important tasks for the US over the next decade, she wrote in Foreign Policy magazine, “will be to lock in a substantially increased investment, diplomatic, economic, strategic and otherwise, in the Asia-Pacific”.
On one level, the secretary of state’s article was just a primer for November’s crowded calendar in the region. Barack Obama will be in Bali for his first east Asian summit. He will also host the annual heads of state meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Hawaii, his birthplace. But Mrs Clinton’s article was more than just diplomatic fluff. The winds of change have been blowing through US foreign policy for some years, along with the rise of China and India.
The Obama administration has, inevitably, been preoccupied with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the pursuit of al-Qaeda leaders into Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.
But foreign policy officials, aligned with both parties, have patiently waited for a gap in the Middle East wars to refocus attention in Asia. Over the past year, with drawdowns in both wars, one is finally opening.
Kurt Campbell, US assistant secretary for east Asia and the Pacific, put the proposition more explicitly in August.
“One of the most important challenges for US foreign policy is to effect a transition from the immediate and vexing challenges of the Middle East to the long-term and deeply consequential issues in Asia,” he said.
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By: Richard McGregor in Washington – Global Insight
Source: Financial Times, Oct. 12, 2011
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