By James R. Holmes
Last Thursday the Naval Diplomat ventured into that strange northern land known as Providence Plantations to give a talk at the World Affairs Council of Rhode Island and hobnob with some of the Ocean State’s upper crust. I titled my presentation “Pivot to Asia: U.S. Strategy in the Indo-Pacific Region.” Having mostly spoken my piece about the Asia pivot, and since the audience for World Affairs Council events is a lay audience, I took a back-to-basics approach to the topic.
Punditsfling around the term pivot rather cavalierly; seldom does anyone define what the pivot is. Well, then, what is it? Let’s ask the strategist Woody Allen, who counsels that eighty percent of life is showing up. Quite so! If the United States pivots to a given region, it must concentrate not just policy attention but diplomatic, economic, and military resources on that region. It has to show up in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean—and stay there. History is unkind to powers that speak loudly yet carry small sticks.
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