US Rebalancing: ASEAN and America's Maritime Allies

The United States’ ‘rebalancing strategy’ was introduced in large part to underscore Washington’s determination to reinvigorate its diplomatic, economic and geopolitical presence and influence in Southeast Asia and in the Asia-Pacific regionat-large. As the Obama administration’s time in office draws to a close, policy ambiguities regarding re-balancing’s purpose and implementation remain and impede US efforts to relate this posture to ASEAN member-states’ own security concerns.  Questions about Washington’s propensity to fine-tune the rebalancing must be asked given the lack of attention directed to this issue by the 2016 presidential candidates to date.  A clear debate has emerged between the rebalancing’s proponents and critics over its relevance to Southeast Asian order-building, especially given China’s increasingly robust behaviour concerning territorial issues and its power projection capabilities.  US maritime allies Japan and Australia have adopted tailored policy initiatives to enhance their own and ASEAN member-states’ defence capacity-building programmes in accordance with the rebalancing strategy’s overall vision of regional collective defence.