U.S. Military Strategy in the Indo-Pacific Region

Introduction

The Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy (FOIP) of the U.S. military has both positive and negative impacts in the Indo-Pacific region. Primarily a military instrument through which the U.S. can form alliances to assist in responding to China's enhancement of its own military presence, FOIP has been promoted by Secretary of Defense Mattis as an opportunity "to strengthen a fraying U.S.-led rules-based international order under threat from regional power shifts, revisionist powers, and rogue regimes" (Parameswaran, 2018). From China's perspective, the U.S. is attempting to insert itself into a regional — that is, domestic — matter that is none of its business. The U.S., on the other hand, views any attempt by China to extend its boundaries and enhance its own geostrategic position in the East as a matter of national security.

Nonetheless, the U.S. frames FOIP in rather more "positive" terms while simultaneously waging economic warfare against China by way of sanctions (for engaging in arms deals with Russia) and trade restrictions. Sen. Perdue stated, "When we're up against 'China, Inc.' who thinks in terms of millennia, we cannot limit ourselves to thinking in fiscal quarters, or four- to eight-year administrations. We need a plan for the long haul to ensure that our nation maintains its leadership and strategic role in the Indo-Pacific region that covers defense, diplomacy, and economics" (Rogin, 2018). Undoubtedly, there are potentially positive, negative, and strategic impacts of the American military's presence in the Indo-Pacific region. This paper shows how the U.S. uses its military instrument as a presence in the Indo-Pacific region to achieve its own strategic objectives.

Positive Impacts of U.S. Military Presence

The positive strategic achievements the United States military gains by maintaining a presence in the Indo-Pacific region include the ability to develop relationships with countries such as India and the Philippines — allies that can help maintain control of sea lanes in the East, functioning as a kind of NATO of the South Seas to guard against Chinese expansion, just as NATO in the West guards against Russian expansion. To this end, Japan, India, Australia, and the U.S. — all of whom can be viewed as rivals of China — have banded together to "recharacterize the Asia-Pacific as the Indo-Pacific" (Stratfor, 2017). The main positive strategic achievement of the U.S. military in the Indo-Pacific is thus the opportunity to redefine the region in terms that shift the balance of power away from China, which seeks to develop the South China Sea islands, back toward the U.S. and its new regional allies. By referring to the Asia-Pacific as the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. adopts a more inclusive posture toward India and brings the East that much closer to the West, making America's military presence there somewhat more acceptable.

This positive strategy allows the U.S. and its allies to unite the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and view the combined area as a single security space (Stratfor, 2017), with U.S. military forces overseeing the sprawling waterways and islands throughout. While China prepares for its 64-nation Belt and Road Initiative and works with Russia to create a multipolar world, the U.S. military instrument in the Indo-Pacific puts pressure on that initiative. The military instrument fosters "a geopolitical competition between free and repressive visions of world order" (Ayres, 2018), as the U.S. frames it. It is essentially a military containment of China, and the presence of U.S. forces can help attract more states to the American alliance network.

Negative Impacts of U.S. Military Presence

Negative strategic impacts of the U.S. military's presence in the Indo-Pacific region include the growing risk of open conflict between China and the U.S. China has made no secret of its resentment toward the U.S. military's presumption that it has a right to interfere with or condemn China's expansion into the disputed South China Sea. The shift from recognizing the region as the Asia-Pacific to calling it the Indo-Pacific can be seen by China as an attempt to marginalize the world's most populous country.

The strategy could also push states currently on the fence about aligning with the U.S. to move away from Washington and either assert their independence or side with China should tensions escalate. As McDonald (2018) notes, "in order to succeed, the FOIP must convince regional leaders that the United States is building a new regional order worth signing up for" — yet the U.S. has not been able to do more than signal its intentions. Implementing the kind of order envisioned by Washington would inevitably lead to conflict with China and would draw numerous other states into the fight. Were the Indo-Pacific to become a theater of war, it would devastate economies throughout the region. Many leaders, anticipating such an outcome, are therefore reluctant to bring it about by siding with the U.S. against China.

Conclusion

The U.S. military strategy in the Indo-Pacific is evident in the reshaping of the region — redefining it in terms that diminish the China-centric framing and incorporate the Indian Ocean. It is an effort to undermine the growing power of China not only in the South China Sea but also throughout the world, where the Belt and Road Initiative is currently underway. The strategic objective of the U.S. is to prevent China from dominating the global economy and diminishing American power in a unipolar world order essentially overseen by the U.S. and sustained by its social, political, and economic influence across the globe.

References

Ayres, A. (2018). The U.S.-Indo Pacific strategy needs more Indian Ocean. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/us-indo-pacific-strategy-needs-more-indian-ocean

McDonald, S. (2018). Wanted: A strategy for the Indo-Pacific region. Retrieved from https://nationalinterest.org/feature/wanted-strategy-indo-pacific-region-28182?page=0%2C1

Parameswaran, P. (2018). Trump's Indo-Pacific strategy challenge in the spotlight. Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2018/06/trumps-indo-pacific-strategy-challenge-in-the-spotlight-at-2018-shangri-la-dialogue/

Rogin, J. (2018). Trump's Indo-Pacific strategy: Where's the beef? Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2018/06/06/trumps-indo-pacific-strategy-wheres-the-beef/

Stratfor. (2017). The Indo-Pacific: Defining a region. Retrieved from https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/indo-pacific-defining-region