East Asian foreign policy of the Barack Obama administration
[6] "The Bush administration assigned an additional aircraft carrier to the Pacific theater and the Pentagon announced in 2005 that it would deploy 60 percent of U.S. submarines to Asia.
Though other areas of the world remained important to American foreign policy, Obama pursued a "pivot" to East Asia, focusing the U.S.'s diplomacy and trade in the region.
[7] Clinton's article emphasizes the importance of the Asia-Pacific, noting that nearly half of the world's population resides there, making its development vital to American economic and strategic interests.
Strategically, maintaining peace and security across the Asia-Pacific is increasingly crucial to global progress, whether through defending freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, countering the nuclear proliferation efforts of North Korea, or ensuring transparency in the military activities of the region's key players.
"[7] The "pivot" strategy, according to Clinton, will proceed along six courses of action: strengthening bilateral security alliances; deepening America's relationships with rising powers, including China; engaging with regional multilateral institutions; expanding trade and investment; forging a broad-based military presence; and advancing democracy and human rights.
He said: "without such a move, there was a danger that China, with its hard-line, realist view of international relations, would conclude that an economically exhausted United States was losing its staying power in the Pacific.
"[16] With the United States now fully invested in Asia, Rudd wrote that Washington and Beijing must create long-term cooperative strategies that accommodate each other's interests.
"[16] Beijing may not welcome the pivot, but Rudd believed China, whose military academies read Clausewitz and Morgenthau and respect strategic strength, understands it.
"[6] The United States is minimizing long-term diplomatic engagement and inflating the threat posed by Chinese power when it should really be recognizing China's inherent weaknesses and its own strengths.
The actions it has entailed either have been merely symbolic, such as the pending deployment of a small number of U.S. marines to Australia, or have involved simply the reallocation of existing air and naval assets from other theaters.
[21] Prem Mahadevan, senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, argued that two complementing circumstances in the Asia-Pacific have precipitated the pivot: "The security dynamic in East Asia is two layered; one layer consists of regional actors pursuing their own agendas, while the second consists of global influences which are propelling China into a geopolitical contest against the United States.
In effect, the theater would gain one additional U.S. aircraft carrier, seven destroyers, ten littoral combat ships and two submarines, plus reconnaissance assets such as EP3 spy planes.
[28] The pivot took a hit from the United States federal government shutdown of 2013 as Obama was forced to remain in Washington and unable to attend APEC Indonesia 2013.
And one of their ripostes was in international finance," [32] observing that the "establishment of a new supranational financial institution based in Beijing needn't trigger vain geopolitical rivalries.
"[34] Clinton left on her first foreign policy tour (to Asia) on 15 February 2009 including scheduled stops in Japan, China, South Korea, and Indonesia.
[38] Prior to leaving on her tour of Asia, Clinton remarked, "We see the Chinese economic relationship as essential to our own country, so we're going to consult and work in a way that will be mutually beneficial.
In her inaugural tour of East Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reassured Japanese officials of Japan's centrality in the network of American alliances.
[39] In a response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the United States initiated Operation Tomodachi to support Japan's disaster relief following the natural disaster[49] earning gratitude from Japan's Minister of Defense, Toshimi Kitazawa, who while visiting the USS Ronald Reagan, thanked its crew for its assistance as part of Operation Tomodachi saying, "I have never been more encouraged by and proud of the fact that the United States is our ally.
"[50] Not long after Obama took office as President of the United States on 20 January 2009, North Korea elbowed its way back onto the international stage after a period of relative quiescence during the waning months of the Bush administration.
[57] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stirred controversy on 19 February 2009, when she admitted that the Obama administration was concerned over a possible succession crisis in North Korea, in reference to the recent apparent illness of reclusive leader Kim Jong-il.
[58] While on a tour of East Asia over the following days, Clinton expressed the Obama administration's desire to engage in negotiations with the North Korean government to seek nuclear disarmament for the socialist state.
[61] Following unannounced nuclear warhead and missile testing by North Korea in late May 2009, Obama's State Department expressed disapproval, calling the actions a violation of a 2006 United Nations Security Council resolution.
[62] After Pyongyang announced its intention to terminate the 1953 armistice ending hostilities in the Korean War on 28 May the South Korea-United States Combined Forces Command went to Watchcon II, the second-highest alert level possible.
have seen the United States oversee its largest military exercise with South Korea since the Korean War, along with an increased troop presence to buttress the 38th Parallel.
[68] The Obama administration initially continued longstanding American reticence in dealing with Union of Myanmar after taking over in January 2009, preferring to prioritize broader security threats like Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan.
[citation needed] In November 2011, Obama spoke with Aung San Suu Kyi on the phone where they agreed to a visit by Secretary of State Clinton to Myanmar.
[79] As of 2012[update], a U.S. military contingent of 600, including Navy Seals and Seabees are stationed "indefinitely" in the Southern Philippines, in a declared non-combatant role to assist the Armed Forces of the Philippines in operations against the al-Quaida-linked Abu Sayyaf terrorist group primarily on the island of Basilan in western Mindanao and the Sulu islands, in particular Jolo, a long-time stronghold of Abu Sayyaf.
[81] The Scarborough Shoal standoff with China and the ongoing Spratly islands dispute has caused the Philippines to consider stronger military ties with the United States.
The formal normalization of relations occurred in 1995, subsequently expanding under both the Clinton and Bush Administrations with dialogues and agreements on human rights, civil aviation, and free trade.
[99] Secretary of State has visited the country three times during her tenure, discussing such topics as regional integration, North Korea, Burma, cyber security and maritime rights in the South China Sea.
