National Security Agency director Robert O’Brien, 2020
U.S. fantasies of expansion, commercial dominion, and military prowess have long hinged on a premise of Pacific exceptionalism. Couched in the millenarian language of manifest destiny, the Pacific region and its multitudinous ecosystems, cultures, peoples, and nations have been vacated in favor of an
aqua nullius that frames the region as an empty space designated for U.S. possession by divine providence.
This manufactured Pacific
idea what David Palumbo-Liu describes as a “repository of the American imaginary” has borne many names.
3 Amid the nineteenth-century annexation of Hawai‘i and the colonization of the Philippines, politician Whitelaw Reid heralded the ultimate conversion of the Pacific into an “American Lake.”
the first one with angela merkel. trade, climate trade and so forth. this is going to be a different environment than the president had in warsaw. a lot at stake and the meetings off the g-7 summit, a lot of people questioning how these relationships are going to evolve since then. thank you very much, nic robertson. joining us to further discuss, hala and jaime, he s an expert in asian-american relations with the atlantic council and daily beast columnist, gordon chang. we heard in some of the clips this morning, the president still questioning whether russia actually meddled in the u.s. election. why do you think he continues to question the intelligence? it s propostrouse and there s one reason. he knows, as the evidence comes out, russia played an important