The United States’ security strategy in the Indo-Pacific needs a course correction. In the past five years, China has built artificial islands to extend its sea claims and set a timeline for readiness to take over Taiwan. This revisionism threatens vital trade routes, resources, and alliances that everyday Americans depend on. While United States military prowess plays a vital role in preserving United States national interests in the region, the current strategy underutilizes our exceptional mechanisms of statecraft. This paper proposes a new strategy, one which fully engages all of the diplomatic tools at hand to further U.S. interests in the region.
This report identifies three diplomatic tacks, or changes in sailing direction, the United States could make immediately to bolster the U.S. competitive edge in the Indo-Pacific before the end of this administration. Our recommendations range from strengthening existing partnerships to securing vital resources through economic diplomacy, or in other words, course corrections that the current American administration should make within the short term to rightsize our strategy in the Indo-Pacific. In particular, these recommendations are meant to complement the existing United States military posture in the region, strengthen U.S. and partner supply chains, reduce existential threats, and outmaneuver China in the gray zone.