The Past and the Future

Many books have been written about the interaction between America and Asia. Is there any need to write, or read, another one now? The question may become less obvious as time passes, and tensions rise. At this stage three answers can be given, in ascending order of importance.

1. • Most of the existing books have been written by Americans or by Asians: for all their merits, few claim to be detached. And at the moment, detachment may not go amiss.

2. • Many of these books, and especially those written during the last couple of decades, deal with a single Asian country and its relations with the United States, rather than with the wider picture, and the interconnections between the relationships involved.

3. • Few of the books already available have been written since the Cold War ended.

The collapse of the Soviet Union radically altered the relationship between America and Asia. It removed the common threat that had kept the United States and most Asian countries working more or less closely together, and had kept the differences between them under control It reduced, if it did not remove, the main constraint on the tensions that had already developed in most of the relationships. It has made them more fragile, and less predictable So the present situation is different from those that earlier books have dealt with And it matters more than it sometimes has in the past, because Asian countries have become stronger Their relations with the United States now have a greater potential, for good or ill, not only for Americans and for Asians, but for the rest of the Pacific world, and even for Europe.

The basic point is simple: America no longer needs Asian allies as it did during the Cold War.