Stories from the Crypt
Remember the “Asia Pivot”?
Washington DC 17 NOV 2023
Many years ago Thirdoffset was frustrated that a myopic focus on the MENA was allowing the CCP to gain unhindered advances in the Indopacific that the US would one day deeply regret. Ask any Marine if that day has yet arrived. The irony being Thirdoffset was working for the Corps at the time as a war college professor, but until Obama said something, interest levels in Asia were low.
In fairness, the officers concerned had all been on multiple combat tours in the sandpit. In fact their whole careers had been spent there. Conducting an unofficial poll of students at the time revealed that not one Marine Major had ever been on an amphib in the Pacific.
That all changed as soon as the “pivot to Asia” was announced. From that moment forward, all Marines could talk about was China.1
In the before times, this author kept his opinions to himself - his mission was to teach people how to think, not what to think. The closest that he came to a blog was a sporadic list of electronic articles of interest - it really was nothing more than bookmarks with the occasional note to jog a future memory. In a few hundred listings over a number of years, commentary started to creep-in towards the end.
Having recently had cause to review the old catalog of entries a handful of commentaries standout as relevant to the work on these pages.
I particularly have in mind the series “WAKE UP DC - THE ASIAN CENTURY IS HERE”. This was in four parts and published a short time before the pivot to Asia. In this respect, it was gratifying to know there were Asianists in the Administration who shared a similar concern for a key deficit in our strategy.
I decided to repost them here for posterity as much as anything else. To keep a record of my thoughts at a particular moment in time on a subject that remains of enduring interest to me at least.
Please note that some of the links will be broken due to the age of the articles.
WAKE UP DC - THE ASIAN CENTURY IS HERE
Why Asia Should be America’s #1 Concern (first published 24 SEP 2011)
Incidents and Strategic Communications (first published 27 SEP 2011)
Espionage (first published 30 SEP 2011)
Counter Proliferation (first published 30 SEP 2011)
Others articles may be added below as the old blog is scanned for relevant material.
It is stunning how quickly officers adapt to a change in focus by the national command authority.