Christopher Lee
Integrated deterrence—this is the concept at the core of US strategy in the Indo-Pacific. By bringing to bear, as the 2022 National Defense Strategy puts it, “the seamless combination of capabilities” to deter adversaries, this strategy offers the flexibility required of such an unpredictable and complex security environment as the Indo-Pacific region’s. However, it is geared largely toward defending the status quo. This is an important objective, but if the existing state of affairs is being constantly altered by threat actor then the strategy must also be altered—or at least augmented.
China is fully committed to changing the regional balance in its favor with its continual aggressive tactics in the South China Sea. President Xi Jinping has presided over a campaign of economic coercion, island building, and military intimidation to gain the upper hand against the United States and its allies. Therefore, preventing China’s behavior may require an enhanced deterrence: a broader focus on multiple scope of cooperation with its allies in the Indo-Pacific region. Pursuing more trilateral and multilateral relationships and weaving them into a network with the United States’ existing array of bilateral alliances and partnerships, would further strengthen Washington’s vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific and deter Beijing.
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