March 22, 2022 | The Wall Street Journal

The Folly of the ‘Pivot to Asia’

China is a rising challenge, but neglecting Europe and the Middle East won’t help America confront it.
Reuel Marc Gerecht

Resident Scholar
Ray Takeyh

Council on Foreign Relations

March 22, 2022 | The Wall Street Journal

The Folly of the ‘Pivot to Asia’

China is a rising challenge, but neglecting Europe and the Middle East won’t help America confront it.

Reuel Marc Gerecht

Resident Scholar
Ray Takeyh

Council on Foreign Relations

Excerpt

Seldom has a diplomatic phrase been more reckless than the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia.” The U.S. has never been able to disentangle itself from key regions of the world, as the war in Ukraine demonstrates. But the notion that a new “Pacific century” should become the nation’s defining priority surely has emboldened adversaries elsewhere and called into question other alliances, including the most indispensable, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The question that ought to haunt the White House today is whether its ignominious retreat from Afghanistan in the name of ending so-called forever wars, and its stream of press releases insisting that China is the only rival worthy of attention, prompted an impetuous Vladimir Putin to undertake the largest land invasion in Europe since World War II.

In January 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave a speech placing Korea outside America’s defense perimeter, thus inviting aggression from North Korea. Often overlooked in that speech is Mr. Acheson’s insistence that “it is a mistake . . . to become obsessed with military invasions” when thinking strategically about Asia and the Pacific. Acheson seemed to assume that the dilemmas of newly independent Asian states came from internal subversion stemming from economic stagnation. To be fair, the Truman administration didn’t shrink from its responsibilities in Europe when war broke out in the Korean Peninsula.

Mr. Gerecht, a former Middle Eastern targets officer in the Central Intelligence Agency, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Follow Reuel on Twitter @ReuelMGerecht. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, non-partisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

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Issues:

Issues:

China Gulf States Iran Iran Global Threat Network Military and Political Power North Korea Russia U.S. Defense Policy and Strategy