As most of you know China's rise to power is one of my foreign policy pet peeves. China is a rather illiberal country that is the only strategic competitor to the US. The Weekly Standard proposes that it may be the next Germany, Japan, or Soviet Union.
My thought is that because of its long cultural history it is more likely that China may simply want to dominate the region, setting up a sort of Asian Monroe Doctrine.
One weird thing Boot said was that there should be created an Asian NATO. My thought was "There is! SEATO! Duh!" So I did some searching and I found out that SEATO was disbanded in 1977! I had no idea.
Maybe we SHOULD try and recreate SEATO. Call it the Asia-Pacific Treaty Organization, include India (one of the US's new favorite post-cold war buddies!), Pakistan (see, this type of alliance might keep the subcontinent from blow itself up!), Japan (I'm not sure how this type of alliance would work concidering the McAurthur constitution), Tailand, Laos, Afghanistan, the Philipines, and... Taiwan. That last one might be too much. That might be enough to start World War 3 (or 4, or 5 depending on what you think about the Cold War as well as the current "War on Terrorism.")
Two problems I see with creating these alliances are:
1. I think back to George Washington's farewell address, but in a global world issolationism is really not an option any more.
2. I think of WW1 being caused by alliances that got out of hand. Creating APTO could make something like a 1 on 1 confrontation between Taiwan vs China into a war between China and its allies vs. the US and its allies, it could spill into Vietnam, Russia could get involved. It could get downright ugly.
That's my international policy thought for the day.
Peace,
Chris
1 comment:
Actually, I've seen online allegations that SEATO dissolved as early as 1975 and as late as 1977.
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