Introduction
In late 2011 and early 2012, the Obama administration rolled out its most significant strategic policy decision: the ‘rebalancing’ of its foreign- and defence-policy priorities towards Asia. The administration took the view that American policy had become unbalanced by its heavy commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that it needed to recalibrate its approach to better reflect the long-term character of America’s interests and the seismic geopolitical changes occurring in Asia. What was entailed in moving strategic focus away from the two conflicts it had inherited was clear. But just what Obama’s rebalance is towards, and precisely what it entails, has been the subject of considerable debate. Is the rebalance simply repackaging a return to the longer-run patterns of American policy of offshore balancing established after the post-1972 Sino-American rapprochement? Is it little more than code for the containment of a rising China? Or does it entail a far more radical and substantive transformation of how America thinks about and approaches its grand strategy in Asia? Most importantly, what does America think Asia’s strategic geography entails?
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