The Change In American Foreign Policy Towards The Asia-Pacific Region Research Paper Examples

Breif Overview

The later part of 1940s until 1991 was an era referred to as the Cold War between the two world superpower. The United States and its allies are in near collision with the Soviet Union regarding the issue of communism. There were no actual massive fighting during the period. However, wars are emerging in regional areas, but the threat of nuclear war is almost real. The world is divided by the ideologies in which the United States and the Soviet Union is trying to impose. The Soviets is in campaign for communism in the region, while the U.S is focusing its effort in suppressing communism through a strategy called containment. Bilateral talks were employed to resolve the conflict. Choosing sides at that time is crucial in the development of international ties and foreign policies. After the Cold War, the United States had to make changes in their foreign policies particularly in the Asia Pacific Region. The reason behind that is that China broke together with the Soviet Union during the Cold War along with the conflicts that has emerged during that period. This event in history contributed to the change in Amarican foreign policy towards the Asia-Pacific region. There are several ways in which America changed its foreign policy and the extent of these changes had a profound effect in terms of international bilateral relationship.

Discussion

The end of the cold war became the beginning of America's change in foreign policies towards the Asia-Pacific region. One instance is the anticipation that Japan is a potential superpower to challenge the United States dominant position. Afterwhich the policies had a new pastime and that is Japan-bashing (Quansheng 2006, p. 1). However, 1990s marked the year for the rise of China and the attention has shifted to this emerging superpower. The United States response to China's momentum is by identifying the country as not a constructive partner, but a rival and competitor (Quansheng 2006, p. 3). One of the changes is the imposition of the "three-no policy" towards Taiwan. Three no policy is identified as no Taiwan independence, no one-China, one-Taiwan and no membership for Taiwan in the international organization. Therefore, looking at how the policies was imposed as a response to the rise of China is the restriction given to its state territory.

So far, the general situation appears to be that America is practicing a multilateral security in the Asia-Pacific as a result of the cold war. There were no security framework of multilateral model has been made in Asia-Pacific due to America's argument that it is Asia and such multilateral agreement cannot be shaped other than bilateral. As compared to the other regions in the world, the United States shaped ring after ring of security alliances such as the formation of NATO. The only alliance model that is eye-catching in Asia is the "hub-and-spoke" model, which is also dominated by the United States (Jianjun 2006, p. 2). On the other hand, multilateral security initiatives were tried in the Asia-Pacific region. However, it didn't produce any results and it ended up in bilateral security arrangement (Jianjun 2006, p. 2).

There is reason behind that failure of multilateral security alliance is America's concerns of one hand suspicion that any initiative might be opposed by an existing multilateral initiatives put forward by other countries such as the USSR. It can be recalled that U.S and Sovient Union had a conflict that resulted to a 50 year cold war. Any initiative put forward by the United States is potentially a threat to the Russion Federation. Therefore, multilateral security initiatives set forth by USSR cannot be put in combination in the Asia-Pacific region. This is because the U.S strongly believes the real intention of USSR in its initiatives are to weaken America's domination and influence in the Asia-Pacific region (Jianjun 2006, p. 3).

Analyzing the way the United States response to the regional dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region, it appears that United States is generally focusing its attention only to the unfolding changes. Therefore, its policies is only issue-based and selective instead of being comprehensive. The result of this American idealism with regard to foreign policy towards the Asia-Pacific region sparked skepticism among the countries in the other Asian countries. Therefore, the Asian region is not seeing the United States having a clear vision for the Asia-Pacific (Kang 2012). Although the majority of the East Asian countries are welcoming the Asia Pivot as an stabilizing force, despite China's rise to power. However, the United States should also put together and establish reliability of their policies in the region particularly on consistency and reliability.

In conclusion, to be able to achieve the objectives of strengthening the United States foreign policies towards the Asia-Pacific region, they should cocentrate their efforts among the various regions in the continent in terms of dimensions and issues. This is because, it appears that the United States only create policies in response to an emerging issues in the Asia-Pacific region, rather than creating a much stronger policy that would enable stability. China on the other hand might see United States effort towards East Asia as a policy driven by countermeasures and encirclement. Therefore, it is imperative that the U.S ultimately understand the relationship that China has on its neighbors. That the relationship of China among the other East Asian nations are more complex, which is also detrimental when it comes to choosing sides between China and the United States. The U.S should better analyze the clear picture of the dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region in order to think of ways to making both bilateral and multilateral framework that would be mutually complementary, especially today that China is posing dominance in the Asia-Pacific region (Baroud 2012).

Reference List

Jianjun, Yu (2006). America and Asia-Pacific Multilateral Security after the Cold War. International Review. 44, pp.1-2.

Quansheng, Zhao (2006). Analysis on the U.S. Response to China’s Rising. America’s Response to the Rise of China and Sino-US Relations. ,, pp.1-3.

Kang, Choi (2012). Council on Foreign Relations [online]. Available from: . [Accessed 7, August 2012].

Baroud, Ramzy (2012). Cold War in Warm Waters: US-China’s Dangerous Contest for Asia-PacificCouncil on Foreign Relations [online]. Available from: . [Accessed 7, August 2012].