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May 16, 2012
Posted by Scott Bates
In recent months the President of the United
States has spoken of a major change in American
defense and foreign policy. After a decade of
almost exclusive focus on two wars in the
Middle East- President Obama and his national
security team have announced that a "pivot to
the Pacific" is taking
place.
Considering that the United
States has been a Pacific power for a century,
that about half of the world's economic
activity and almost all of its economic growth
can be found in the nations of the Asia
Pacific- this new focus makes great
sense.
But while American troops have
been in the deserts of Iraq and the hills of
Afghanistan, and American taxpayers have spent
a trillion dollars in the Middle East-
important developments in Asia have been taking
place, often without American attention or
participation.
Dozens of free trade
deals have been signed between the nations of
the Asia-Pacific that have not included the
United States. China has become the number one
trading partner of almost every nation in the
Asia-Pacific, and the budget for the armed
forces of the People's Republic of China has
been growing at a double digit rate for more
than the past ten years.
Indeed, at over
$100 billion dollars a year, the Chinese
military has developed advanced capabilities
that may be able to deny the United States Navy
freedom of maneuver in the Western Pacific.
This would be a strategic situation not
experienced by American military planners since
the Battle of Midway.
This situation has
led the Pentagon to develop new strategic
doctrines to address the challenge of
Anti-Access and Area Denial in the Western
Pacific.
In 2011 Secretary of Defense
Leon Panetta stood up the Air-Sea Battle Office
to address this very challenge of how to allow
US forces to get to a potential conflict in the
Western Pacific and to then operate effectively
in the area.
In short- we must develop
strategies matched with weapons systems and
tactics to maintain our ability to get to the
battle, to operate in the battle space, and to
prevail.
And to make it all even more
challenging, to remain militarily predominant
in the Pacific- we must find a way to operate
in and prevail in five domains; air, sea, land,
space and cyber space.
If the United
States is to maintain the diplomatic, economic
and security benefits that come to us by being
the predominant military power in East
Asia, then we must answer the questions
of 'how to do get to the battle and how do we
prevail in the potential battle space in the
Western Pacific."
How can we deter
potential adversaries, assure allies in the
region and ensure our ability to quickly
terminate conflict and prevail?
These
are the questions which we must begin to ask
and answer soon, for trillions of dollars,
issues of war and peace and perhaps the fate of
nations hang in the balance.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Center for National Policy.
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