By Mercy A. Kuo and Angelica O. Tang
Insights from Xenia Wickett
The Rebalance authors Mercy Kuo and Angie Tang regularly engage subject-matter experts, policy practitioners and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into the U.S. rebalance to Asia. This conversation with Xenia Wickett – Project Director, United States; Dean, The Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, Chatham House – is the seventh in “The Rebalance Insight Series.”
In a Chatham House Report on Asia-Pacific security you observed, “Despite President Obama’s announcement of the U.S. strategic rebalancing towards Asia, America’s friends and allies are increasingly less confident of what position it will take in the region.” To what do you attribute this lack of confidence?
Key trends in recent years are changing the environment in which the United States and others act. First, the challenges being faced are becoming more global – the U.S. is a necessary but no longer sufficient actor to respond. They are also multiplying – the traditional threats of state-on-state conflict are being added to by the non-traditional such as pandemics, terrorism and cyber warfare. Second, the social construct under which we’ve been living for many decades no longer adds up – so more choices are going to have to be made between spending on areas such as security, education, infrastructure, and welfare. Given these trends, America’s role in the world is transitioning – something clearly seen in its actions in Europe and the Middle East – and this gives rise to uncertainty. This lack of clarity leads to a lack of confidence.
Read the full story at The Diplomat