Andrew Harding
Competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has generated new interest in the Pacific Island region. While broadly welcomed by the Pacific Islands, America’s reengagement in the Pacific Islands lacks the long-term, strategic framework necessary for guiding U.S. engagement and presenting a clear vision of America’s interests throughout the region.
Furthermore, America’s interest in the Pacific region has generated new leverage for Pacific Island states. With renewed American attention, these states benefit from increased numbers of interested development and security partners and can play the United States and China, as well as other major states, off each other to maximize their own interests. If the United States does not carefully navigate these relationships, it risks ceding influence and access to China, thereby granting Beijing a potential foothold in the Indo–Pacific that can threaten U.S. national security interests and complicate possible future military operations in Asia, if and when needed.
This Special Report proposes a comprehensive, national strategy for U.S. engagement in the Pacific Islands region.REF The report argues that American policymakers should consider the Pacific Islands a region worthy of increased U.S. engagement and resource allocation. While focused on making the case for and to Americans, the strategy also incorporates Pacific Island, allied, and partner interests and perspectives to emphasize shared interests, potential areas of cooperation, and long-lasting engagement opportunities. The strategy presents U.S. policymakers with a transformative pathway to maximize U.S. interests, build stronger, long-term partnerships with the Pacific Islands and regional allies, and counter Chinese ambitions in the Pacific.
The Modern Role of the Pacific Islands in U.S. National Security Strategy
Our strategic frontier then shifted to embrace the entire Pacific Ocean, which became a vast moat to protect us as long as we held it. Indeed, it acts as a protective shield for all of the Americas and all free lands of the Pacific Ocean area. » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/china/report/the-pacific-pivot-american-strategy-the-pacific-islands