The greatest security impact of the US strategic shift to East Asia will be felt in the Middle East, the region that relies most heavily on America for its security needs.
The massive new challenges that we face require a new and very clear approach to the world’s longest-standing alliance between the United States and Europe.
During the Cold War, Europe was America’s strategic priority. East Asia was largely a sideshow, even though the United States fought bloody wars in Korea and Vietnam, and also provided security for Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Strategic competition between China and the United States should be characterized not as a new cold war but as an uneasy peace. Shooting is not likely to break out, but the two countries will remain in dread of each other in the coming decade.