United States’ “Pivot” Towards Asia-Pacific: Rationale, Goals and Implications for the Relationship with China

In this paper we bring to the forefront the complexity of the networked relationships in the IndoAsia-Pacific space and their multi-layered structure (including economy, development, culture, security, defence, history, diplomacy). In spite of the dynamism and deep transformations of the Asian economies during the last decades, the US has only recently started to rebalance towards this region. Among the determinants of the new strategy there could be identified: tapping the economic potential of the region; countering the rise of China and counterbalancing regional alliances; redefining norms and rules in Asia-Pacific. From the variable geometry alliances in AsiaPacific, we analyze two case studies, US-China-India and US-China-ASEAN and underline that: (1) not only the US, but also other stakeholders such as India are rebalancing towards AsiaPacific; (2) the new strategy reflects two contradictory objectives of the US foreign policy: a constructive relationship with China, on the one hand and strengthening alliances to the detriment of China in order to counter its rise, on the other hand. In our view, until the US presidential elections are not expected major foreign policy changes, nevertheless starting with 2017 the “pivot” towards Asia-Pacific might become even more evident.