Pacific Affairs: An International Review of Asia and the Pacific

Volume 74, No. 2

 

American Northeast Asian Strategy
By Frank Langdon

 

Abstract

This essay examines American military strategy as it has been successfully applied to the Northeast Asian region after the Cold War. The Clinton Administration was challenged by the two chief regional sources of tension: the contending regimes in Korea and China. Barely preventing renewal of the Korean War in 1994, the Clinton administration adopted a more conciliatory policy toward North Korea and strengthened alliances with South Korea and Japan as well as halting further withdrawals of forward deployed US forces. American missile defense plans, both under Clinton and the younger Bush, have added new tension with China, the only major power likely to be disadvantaged by it. Under the new Bush administration the first Republican control of both presidency and Congress since 1953 should reduce the traditional conflict between the two branches of government over China policy, especially over Taiwan, but it may increase tension with China. The present decrease in tension in Korea and the much longer time it will take than expected to complete development and deployment of present missile defense plans should provide an opening for negotiating a more stable nuclear balance with China and for negotiating a peaceful relationship with North Korea.