The Obama administration\u27s strategic pivot to Asia: From a diplomatic to a strategic constrainment of an emergent China?

This article examines the connection between President Barack Obama\u27s 2011 Strategic Pivot to Asia and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton\u27s 2010 Hanoi Declaration on the South China Sea dispute. Secretary Clinton\u27s statement during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in July 2010 evoked a new diplomatic strategy in confronting an emergent and assertive China-constrainment. This strategy involved Washington working with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-states in persuading China to adhere to a multilateral approach in resolving the South China Sea issue. However, China admonished the ASEAN states not to follow the U.S. bidding. As a major economic partner and an occasional political ally of most ASEAN states, China subsequently thwarted the U.S. design to form a regional bloc for a constrainment policy. Failing diplomatically, the Obama administration is rebalancing U.S. naval /air forces toward the Asia-Pacific region. This marks a shift from a diplomatic constrainment policy to a pivot strategy that is predicated on American military power. © 2013 Korea Institute for Defense Analyses