Why Asia Matters to the U. S.
What’s the Latest Development?
The shift in U.S. strategic attention toward Asia–it has already moved the bulk of its naval deployments towards the Asia-Pacific–has even some astute commentators wondering why Americans should care about Asian security. The answer lies in the fact that it’s in the strategic interests of the U. S. to help prevent any single power from establishing the same sort of regional hegemony it has long enjoyed in the Western hemisphere.
What’s the Big Idea?
Stephen M. Walt says the point “isn’t a moral or ethical one: it is straightforward realpolitik.” While it remains the only great power in the Western hemisphere, the U. S. is safer. And as long as Eurasia is divided among many contending powers, these states will naturally tend to worry mostly about each other and not about North America.
