Introduction

Debate is intensifying over how order-building in the Asia-Pacific will develop and what its security ramifications might be. To what extent the United States will be willing or able to preserve its role as that region’s strategic balancer and to maintain its bilateral alliance commitments there at a time when China’s power is growing and North Korea’s hostility is deepening is a major concern. So too is the struggling American economy and the possible weakening of US regional security commitments. Moreover, US regional allies are increasingly questioning their own postwar geopolitical identities relative to changing power dynamics and to their own domestic political rifts. Australia and Japan, perhaps Washington’s most trusted and loyal security partners in the Asia-Pacific, are both increasingly confronted with these strategic uncertainties.