Review: Can Multipolarity Work in US Asia Strategy Futures?
New book charts out future US strategy roadmap for a more multipolar world beyond Trump II focus, with implications for the Indo-Pacific and Southeast Asia.
A new book charts out a future U.S. strategy roadmap for a more multipolar world beyond the second administration of President Donald Trump, with implications for the Indo-Pacific and Southeast Asia.
WonkCount: 1,817 words (~8 minutes)
Review: Can Multipolarity Work in US Asia Strategy Futures?
Context
“Multipolarity itself does not provide a stable framework for countries to work together,” Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong warned in an interview earlier this week about what he characterized as a “messy and unpredictable…great transition to a post-American order and a multipolar world”1. The comments come just ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first Asia trip in his second term which will include a stop in Malaysia for the latest round of ASEAN summitry (some details of which ASEAN Wonk understands from officials are still being finalized)2. More generally, Wong’s candid remarks echo uncertainties officials privately note about various configurations that multipolarity could take beyond abstract conceptions, even if one accepts the assumption that the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision for America’s global role will endure beyond his time in office.
Select Key Recent and Upcoming Regional Developments and US Asia Policy Datapoints
A new book First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World by scholar Emma Ashford charts out a future multipolar pathway for U.S. foreign policy with implications for Asia and the wider world3. Ashford’s work adds to a number of book-length works that take a more explicitly restraint-based worldview on U.S. foreign policy which has gained relatively more traction in the Beltway in recent years. This is in addition to a large number of works on U.S. foreign policy more generally and on the region in particular some of which we have reviewed here on ASEAN Wonk, including Michael Green’s By More Than Providence and Scot Marciel’s Imperfect Partners4. “Today four tribes…are contending for the future of U.S. foreign policy…the world is changing; do not let the past be a straitjacket,” the book cautions before delving into foreign policy futures and implications for regions including Asia5.
Analysis
The book also forecasts future implications to watch in the coming years and their wider regional and global implications (see originally-generated ASEAN Wonk table below for a summary of future implications for Asia, major policy focus areas as well as key U.S. foreign policy traditions. Paying subscribers can also read the rest of the “Analysis” section and “Implications” section looking at how these dynamics play out in the future).
Future Implications for Asia, Along with Key US Foreign Policy “Tribes” and Major Policy Focus Areas
