This post is by Deepak Nair, Visiting Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. It originally appeared as an RSIS Commentary. Read the entire Commentary series here.
Obama’s America: Why it is likely to endure in Asia
Two key underlying themes have predicated the discourses on Barack Obama’s visit to Asia. First, the US has weakened. Second, Asia has changed substantially. But contrary to conclusions of “irrevocable decline”, America still has an enduring role in Asia.
America’s ‘decline’, Asia’s ‘confidence’
THOSE WHO argue that the United States is in decline point to some compelling empirical evidence: a struggling economy, a discredited model of economic and social planning, and, of course, the apparent growth of China’s power.
While these changes are beyond doubt, the implications are, however, debatable. An increasingly ubiquitous implication has been that Obama’s visit instantiates the irrevocably diminishing position of the US in Asia. This is seen, it is argued, in the visit’s accent on seeking growth and markets from Asia, an explicit willingness to accommodate the interests of China rather than contain it, and its difficulty in rebuilding troubled relations with allies like Japan. FULL ARTICLE>>>>
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