Thomas W. Spoehr conducts and supervises research on national defense matters. President Biden participates in a virtual event with members of the House Democratic Caucus in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 3, 2021 in Washington, D.C. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP / Getty Images
Key Takeaways
Seemingly gone is the naivety of the Obama era when the administration hoped for “deeper and more effective partnerships” with countries like China and Russia.
It isn’t out of a desire for an “arms race” that the U.S. is belatedly pursuing nuclear modernization; it is now a matter of preserving deterrence itself.
Let’s hope that the full strategy will focus more on nuts-and-bolts national security and foreign policy goals and less on other topics.
There is still the possibility of cooperation between China and the US in Southeast Asia. For example, in the case of Myanmar situation, if the two sides can turn their rivalry into communication and coordination, Beijing and Washington can in fact find common interests in stabilizing the situation there, and even find a solution together. However, if the US simply sees this as a new battleground to suppress China’s influence or even to counter China’s rise, a new round of confrontation between the two countries will emerge. Nor will there be peace and stability in Southeast Asia anymore under a fierce contest of the two great powers.
Although he touched upon dozens of topics at his news conference on Sunday, few would doubt that State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi was using the opportunity to signal to the United States that it should act to follow up on the agreement reached between leaders of the two countries in their phone call last month.