The Other Side of Asia

The U.S. needs to take China seriously not only as a potential military threat, but as a threat to our influence in Southeast Asia, Dr. Marvin Ott, professor of National Security Policy at the National War College, believes.

“If you take China seriously as an ambitious, smart, sophisticated strategic player determined to diminish the U.S. in the region to create a geopolitical sphere of influence, the situation requires some heavy thinking,” said Ott at a recent Heritage Foundation panel.

The panel on July 24 examined the role that the U.S. is currently playing in the Southeast Asian theater and what steps the government needs to take in order to maintain our presence in a region that has been dominated by U.S. influence over the past 50 years. “There’s a lot we can learn from this about China,” said Ott, “There’s a potential for some very serious conversations.”

Dr. Ott went on to identify several key strategic players in the region that the U.S. should pursue dialogue with in order to get a firmer grasp on intelligent security policy in the region and gain some insight regarding the goals of the Chinese. “A proactive, intelligent U.S. security strategy would spend a lot of time talking to the Thais,” Ott stressed. He also specifically mentioned Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia as countries that the U.S. should pursue dialogue with.

Fellow panel member Bronson Percival, a Senior Advisor at the Center for Naval Analysis and veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, agreed with Ott and also added that much of the reason for our deteriorating relationships in Southeast Asia can be traced to our military relationships with them.

In the past, U.S. forces have played a disproportionate role in the area’s military affairs, and thus our allies in the region have become more of an instrument used to project U.S. power rather than valued allies with whom we have both an extensive military and diplomatic relationship.

“They believe that the U.S. sees them as little more than aircraft carriers used to project U.S. military power in the region,” Percival added.

President Bush’s upcoming visit to the region could be a first step in trying to alleviate some of those concerns, and hopefully it will lead to increased interaction between the U.S. and its Southeast Asian allies.

Jeff Waldmann is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.