America's pacific logic.

• Author: Kaplan, Robert D.

Title: America's Pacific Logic

Author: Robert D. Kaplan

Text:

America's Pacific Logic by Robert D. Kaplan

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/americas-pacific-logic-robert-d-kaplan

Reviewed by John Sylvester

Writing for STRATFOR, Kaplan lays out the case for the administration's "pivot" to East Asia--the move away from preoccupation with wars in West Asia to stress a balance of power in East Asia to face the rise of China.

Kaplan does not echo the more strident hawks demanding "containment" of China, noting that it is not like the USSR. "China is so much freer than the former Soviet Union that to glibly state that China is 'not a democracy' is to miss the point of China's rise entirely."

The U.S. must, however, prevent the "Finlandization" of the other countries of East Asia, so that they will not become so intimidated by China that they must bend to its will. He sees China as somewhat like the Venetian empire in that it is a potential new empire with speculative commercial and policing ventures as its companies range abroad. The primary target of China is Vietnam. If it can cow Hanoi, "Beijing will in practical terms capture the South China Sea," which China sees as its "national soil" (perhaps more correctly "national waters").

Thus, Kaplan claims, it is...