The US Navy's Indo–Pacific challenge

Abstract

Beginning in late 2011, successive US defence policy documents and official pronouncements explicitly depicted American strategy in Asia in Indo–Pacific terms. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was the first top US official to frame expanding US partnerships with Australia, India, and Indonesia in the broader Indo–Pacific context. Subsequently, President Barak Obama reaffirmed Clinton's vision in his November 2011 speech to the Australian House of Representatives. Two months later, the Pentagon published its strategic guidance that directed the US military to ‘rebalance toward the Asia–Pacific region', declaring that American interests are ‘inextricably linked to developments in the arc extending from the western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean region and South Asia'. The ‘pivot’ to the Indo–Pacific has since become the driving force behind the US regional strategy.

Keywords:

• US defence policy
• US Navy
• pivot
• naval power
• geo-strategy
• Indo-Pacific

Notes

1. Mahan's ‘broad formula’ is that a fleet ‘must be great enough to take the sea, and to fight, with reasonable chances of success, the largest force likely to be brought against it’ (Mahan, 1911, p. 198).