The US Rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific: Really Realist?

Abstract

The Obama administration perceives the Asia-Pacific as a vital and dynamic region and thus prioritized it in its foreign policy agenda. Some scholars have suggested that the Obama administration’s rebalance towards Asia has taken a realist approach to engagement with the Asia-Pacific while others suggested that it deviated significantly from realism. This article seeks to examine more closely the question of the realist nature of the US rebalance policy towards the Asia-Pacific. It begins with a discussion of views of the Obama administration’s rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific before giving an overview of realism. Then, it seeks to establish a realist model of foreign policy and examine the Obama administration’s rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific against that model. It finds that the Obama administration has high scores on two of the indicators of realism—the emphasis on military capabilities and the emphasis on alliance-building—but has lower scores on the third and the fourth—a low regard for multilateral institutions, and a low regard for values. The Obama administration has actively engaged with regional institutions and has strongly supported the spread of democracy and human dignity all over the Asia-Pacific. Hence, the Obama administration’s rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific is a realist foreign policy with certain modifications.