At a time when America’s global pre-eminence is being severely challenged by China, the future of the present U.S.-led international order and America’s own standing are likely to be settled in the Indo-Pacific region, especially Asia. This explains why Joe Biden is the third successive U.S. President to commit to shifting America’s primary strategic focus to the Indo-Pacific. Yet, it is far from certain that he will succeed where his two predecessors failed.
Strategy on the Indo-Pacific
If anything, Mr. Biden is getting increasingly distracted from the Indo-Pacific by Russian moves. The escalating U.S.-Russia tensions over NATO’s forward policy, with Ukraine as the flashpoint, threaten to become the defining crisis of the Biden presidency. The crisis, which has the makings of a drawn-out and dangerous confrontation, could deepen the involvement of an already overstretched U.S.in European security.
