The Case for a Pacific Defense Pact: America Needs a New Asian Alliance to Counter China

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/case-pacific-defense-pact

Posted by ForeignAffairsMag

12 comments

  1. [SS from essay by Ely Ratner, Principal at the Marathon Initiative. From 2021 to 2025, he served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the Biden administration.]

    The time has come for the United States to build a collective defense pact in Asia. For decades, such a pact was neither possible nor necessary. Today, in the face of a growing threat from China, it is both viable and essential. American allies in the region are already investing in their own defenses and forging deeper military bonds. But without a robust commitment to collective defense, the Indo-Pacific is on a path to instability and conflict.

    Tactical shifts aside, Beijing’s geopolitical aspirations for “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” remain unchanged. China seeks to seize Taiwan, control the South China Sea, weaken U.S. alliances, and ultimately dominate the region. If it succeeds, the result would be a China-led order that relegates the United States to the rank of a diminished continental power: less prosperous, less secure, and unable to fully access or lead the world’s most important markets and technologies.

  2. Hopefully Indian goberment is smart enough to not get involved in this. America is not trustworthy. They play both sides and only look after their own interests.

  3. What America needs and what America deserves are two vastly different pictures.

  4. How they want to build alliance by threating there like minded partners???

  5. I get the appeal of a Pacific Defense Pact modeled after NATO, especially with China becoming more assertive in the region. You could definitely see countries like Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia being natural candidates for such an alliance. If China ever directly attacked one of them, that would be an unprecedented escalation, and I think there’s a real chance they would rally together.

    But the situation in Asia is very different from Cold War-era Europe. NATO was built around a relatively simple binary—Western Europe vs. the Soviet Union. Asia, on the other hand, is far more multipolar and complicated.

    For starters, would these countries really be willing to go to war with China over Taiwan? That’s the elephant in the room. It’s one thing to defend each other from direct aggression, but Taiwan is a highly sensitive issue with complex legal and diplomatic implications. It’s far more likely these countries would be pulled into a conflict involving Taiwan rather than initiating one based on mutual defence.

    Then there’s the issue of regional tensions beyond China. Take India, for example. If they were to join such an alliance, their biggest concern isn’t China—it’s Pakistan. And it’s hard to imagine countries like Japan or Australia committing to defend India from Pakistan under a blanket “attack on one is an attack on all” clause. Similarly, South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea. Would Australia or the Philippines want to be automatically on the hook if something flares up on the Korean peninsula?

    So while a tighter security framework in the Indo-Pacific makes sense, a NATO-style alliance might not be the best fit.

  6. Yeah, this is a no brainer, with a similar article to Article 5.

  8. Yes. It was there. It was called QUAD. And the Americans killed it.

  9. As a Canadian, I don’t even really care if China wins anymore tbh… sorry Americans you cooked yourselves

  11. The US just demonstrated how fearful they are of Russia despite having all the cards.

    Who would believe that they have strength and will to fight China?

    And if they dont have it then what is the point of such alliance?

  12. Seems unlikely that they would commit to going to war against China over Taiwan.

    The best alliance I could see forming would be a gener defensive one involving Japan, SK, Philippines, Australia, Singapore, US, and any others that wish to join. This alliance would only go to war with China if one of them is attacked and it would not include Taiwan.

    If Taiwan gets invaded I would be shocked if any other country than the US intervened, other than allowing the US to use its bases in the Philippines, Japan, SK, Australia and maybe these countries providing materiel support

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