Obama’s Asian Allies Need to Give Something Back

The United States makes commitments to foreign allies, but cannot promise how firm the US electorate and future administrations will be in honoring those commitments. The Obama’s US pivot to Asia as a strategy focused on the populous Asia, including China, and opportunity for trade, while maintaining a security presence to protect that trade. US citizens and allies wonder if the United States is overextended, especially after failing to deliver quick rescue to Ukraine after Crimea’s annexation by Russia or Syrians battling a dictator supported by Russia. Alliances in Asia are unbalanced, suggests Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute for the Financial Times, with the US committed to protect nations like Japan and South Korea but not vice versa. “Instead of answering the Asians’ question about the steadfastness of America’s commitment to them, the president should ask them what they are prepared to do for America,” Prestowitz concludes. All Pacific Rim nations, so tightly bound by trade, could do more to cooperate, settling petty differences to tackle major global challenges. – YaleGlobal