Grand foreign-policy strategies rarely disappear overnight. More often, they are dismantled gradually through subtle rhetorical shifts, bureaucratic adjustments, and changing diplomatic priorities. America's Indo-Pacific strategy is no exception.
A decade ago, then-Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo unveiled the concept of a "free and open" Indo-Pacific. Based on the idea that the Indian and Pacific Oceans form a single strategic theatre, he sought to build a coalition of democracies committed to preventing any one power from dominating the region.
