The United States and East Asia: a new paradigm?

Abstract

The end of the Cold War has precipitated a major rethinking of the United States' international commitments in both the scholarly and policymaking comrnunities. For the first time in nearly half a century, the United States is fundamentally reconsidering both its military and economic relations with the outside world. However, the debate over how to restructure US foreign policy has generally focused on Europe. When analysts have referred to Asia, the emphasis has generally been on economic problems in the region. Similarly, the thrust of these works has tended to remain short-term, looking at the immediate future. This paper challenges these viewpoints. It argues that East Asia is as important as Europe to the United States, for security as well as economic reasons. The paper looks at the long-run as well as short-run trends in East Asia, and argues that the issues the US will face in the future will not arise solely from its traditional adversaries-a major problem will be managing conflicts within alliances.