Opinion | Asia must overcome its timidity on the world stage as US power retreats

Chietigj Bajpaee says while America will remain a power of consequence for the foreseeable future, it is ceding ground in international affairs and creating a power void for Asia to do more. China, India, Japan and other powers must step up to assume greater responsibilities for global security

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Gradual US retrenchment is creating a void for Asian powers to do more. Illustration: Craig Stephens

Published: 5:30pm, 23 May 2018Updated: 8:11pm, 23 May 2018

There has been a long-standing tendency to predict the demise of US global power. There was the humiliating US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which prompted speculation that the United States would be less interested in maintaining an extended military presence in the absence of the cold-war superpower rivalry. Similar sentiments arose amid the operational fatigue of US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq during the so-called “war on terror”, following the terrorist attacks of 2001.

All of these developments prompted claims that the US was facing an “east of Suez” moment in its foreign policy (echoing the decision by Britain to downgrade its overseas military presence following the Suez crisis of 1956).

Over the years, Asian powers have responded by “stepping up” and assuming the reins of leadership, amid fears of a US withdrawal from Asia. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is taking centre stage in the regional architecture, through such initiatives as the Asean Regional Forum and East Asia Summit; Japan is on a quest to emerge as a “normal” power through the reinterpretation of its constitutional restrictions on military deployment; and discussions for the eventual transfer of wartime operational control from the US to South Korea have been ongoing.

The latest claims of US retrenchment in Asia have come with the presidency of Donald Trump and his so-called “America first” agenda. Under his leadership, the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement and appeared fickle over its commitment to long-standing allies and value-oriented diplomacy (on defending human rights, the rule of law, and democracy promotion). The threat of a trade war between China and the US are the latest signs of the US being an erratic and at times unreliable power in Asia.