US creates a power vacuum in Asia

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-02-260214.html



US creates a power vacuum in Asia
By Nakayama Toshihiro
Feb 26, '14

Shaken by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US veered sharply onto a course of intervention to eliminate that threat. Many Americans undoubtedly had in the backs of their minds questions about whether this course had made the US safer or simply deepened the chasm with the international community as they elected Obama to pursue a new approach to relations with the rest of the world.

The world welcomed the image projected by President Obama. In revamping US engagement with the rest of the world, Obama modified Bush's "war on terror" to a "war on violent extremism", and transformed the nature of the US engagement from "eliminating threats" to "seeking out possibilities". While the US must certainly address "violent extremism", this is not something that should frame all of its actions, and this change of perspective was at the heart of the worldview running through Obama's foreign policy.

Both the "dialogue with the Muslim world" stressed in the early days of the administration and the "rebalancing policy" of shifting the axis of US foreign policy to the Asia-Pacific region were the products of the global perspective taken by President Obama, who regarded international politics as a "space for possibilities".

There is a propensity in Japan to view this rebalancing policy as a response designed to counter the rise of China, but the Asia-Pacific region is above all one "replete with possibilities" for the US, whose intentions of once more engaging in regional affairs have garnered support. In this sense, it would be a mistake to jump to the conclusion that Obama's foreign policy is a manifestation of isolationism.