Lost Decade: The US Pivot to Asia

Lost Decade is an essential guide for understanding the historic shift to Asia-centric geopolitics and its implications for America's present and future.Across the political spectrum, there is wide agreement that Asia should stand at the center of US foreign policy. But this worldview, first represented in the Obama Administration's 2011 "Pivot to Asia," marks a dramatic departure from the entire history of American grand strategy. More than a decade on, we now have the perspective to evaluate it in depth. In Lost Decade, Robert Blackwill and Richard FontaineDLtwo eminent figures in American foreign policyDLtake this long view. They conclude that while the Pivot's strategic logic is strong, there are few successes to speak of, and that we need a far more coherent approach to the Indo-Pacific region. They examine the Pivot through various lenses: situating it historically in the context of America's global foreign policy, revealing the inside story of how it came about, assessing the effort thus far, identifying the ramifications in other regions (namely Europe and the Middle East), and proposing a path forward.The authors stress that the US has far less margin for foreign policy error today than a decade ago. As the international order becomes more unstable, Blackwill and Fontaine argue that it is imperative that policymakers fully understand what the Pivot to Asia aimed to achieveDLand where it fell shortDLin order to muster the resources, alliances, and resolve to preserve an open order in Asia and the world. Crafting an effective policy for the region, they contend, is crucial for preserving American security, prosperity, and democratic values.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: What's at Stake: The Pivot and American Vital National Interests Chapter 3: The Pivots Before the Pivot: The Clinton and Bush Administrations Chapter 4: Rhetoric Meets Reality: Obama's Pivot to Asia Chapter 5: Turning on China: The Pivot During the Trump Administration Chapter 6: Gaining Ground: Biden Policy Toward Asia and China Chapter 7: Please Stay: Europe and the Pivot Chapter 8: America Is Going Home: The Middle East and the Pivot Chapter 9: We Don't Want to Choose: The Indo-Pacific and the Pivot Chapter 10: We Will Build in Any Case: China Rises as the Pivot Flops Chapter 11: Balancing Military Power in Asia: Defense Policy and the Pivot Chapter 12: Pivoting from Offense to Defense: The Changing Role of Economic Policy Chapter 13: Competition and Cooperation: Transnational Issues and the Pivot Chapter 14: Conclusion: The US Pivot to Asia and American Grand Strategy Notes

About the Author :
Robert D. Blackwill is the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Blackwill served as deputy national security advisor for strategic planning under President George W. Bush, as presidential envoy to Iraq, and ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003. He is the recipient of the German government's Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit for his work on German Unification at the White House in the George H.W. Bush administration. His previous books include War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft (2016), and Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World (2013). His CFR Special Reports include The End of World Order and American Foreign Policy (2020); Implementing Grand Strategy Toward China: Twenty-Two U.S. Policy Prescriptions (2020); Containing Russia (2018). Richard Fontaine is the Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). He served as President of CNAS from 2012-19 and as Senior Fellow from 2009-12. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council (NSC), and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Fontaine served as foreign policy advisor to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently as the minority deputy staff director on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also served as Associate Director for Near Eastern Affairs at the NSC from 2003-04. Fontaine began his foreign policy career as a staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focusing on the Middle East and South Asia. Fontaine currently serves as executive director of the Trilateral Commission and on the Defense Policy Board.

Review :
Getting Asia right is the single most important issue for American foreign policy. This bracing book must be read by anyone who wants to understand or shape policy. Agree or disagree, this is a perspective that must be reckoned with. An important and well-researched explanation of the flawed assumptions that underpinned US policy for far too long. Three administrations in a row, on a bipartisan basis, have now prioritized Asia in key strategic documents. Yet the day-to-day preferences of the U.S. government have demonstrated that this shift exists on paper only, with few concrete resource or force allocation shifts to speak for over a decade of apparent effort.Lost Decade represents an important contribution to help policymakers understand why the long-promised pivot to Asia failed to materialize, and just as important, how America can meet the scale of the challenge in its priority theater. A must-read for foreign policy analysts. Blackwill and Fontaine's diagnosis of America's failed Pivot to Asia-a "historic missed opportunity" - is a compelling explanation of why reordering priorities in American foreign policy is almost too hard. Lost Decade constitutes an enormously important contribution by two universally respected practitioner-scholars and clearly identifies the actions that need to be taken by the United States and its allies to accomplish the most important task in the world today - ensuring that the elements of deterrence in the IndoPacific region are absolutely rock solid. In Lost Decade, Robert Blackwill and Richard Fontaine examine America's decade-plus attempt to focus on Asia. Their account details a critical period in the history of U.S. foreign policy, and it discerns lessons directly applicable to today's policy choices. In calling for a renewed pivot to Asia while maintaining key commitments elsewhere, the authors offer a grand strategic approach to the new world now upon us. All those interested in the great foreign policy issues of our day should read this book. Blackwill and Fontaine bring their extensive government and academic experience to bear in documenting the Pivot's history, and they articulate a new strategic concept that couples a focus on China with other threats that aren't going away. A must-read for policymakers and others trying to make sense of a world awash with challenges. This authoritative, carefully-researched study shows why the pivot never quite materialized...but also explains why it is still needed and what is required for it to become a reality. Meticulously researched and powerfully argued, Lost Decade lays out why the United States' last "pivot" to Asia fell short and why we can't afford to fall short again. Fontaine and Blackwill take on some of the most fundamental questions in U.S. foreign policy while retaining a sharp focus on practical solutions, making Lost Decade vital reading not just for policymakers, but for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of American grand strategy. Lost Decade raises grand strategic questions about how the United States should deal with China that foreign policy thinkers and practitioners must address. Happily, it provides specific answers that are likely to attract bipartisan support, including a policy "to-do list." Even China watchers who disagree with the authors' assumptions and conclusions will find this a valuable read. Lost Decade easily joins the short but growing list of must-read books to better understand the past, present, and future of U.S.—China strategic competition. It is an astute and reproving accounting of successive missed opportunities and missteps, but also an incisive diagnostic inspection of the structural shortcomings of American policymaking. For an understanding of how difficult it will be to execute on the policy options and the challenges in doing so, Lost Decade is the book you want. Blackwill and Fontaine's book provides a depressingly comprehensive account of how bureaucratic inertia and geopolitical distraction undermined the logic behind Obama's original pivot.... an important book. The authors are very convincing in their case for a new Pivot to ensure that China is either unable or unwilling to overturn the rules-based international order.... For people like this reader who lived through the "Lost Decade," it will be a delight to read through this well documented and logically ordered narrative of the period's events. Lost Decade: The US Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power by Robert D. Blackwill and Richard Fontaine offers a critical examination of the United States' foreign policy shift towards Asia, initiated during the Obama administration in 2011. The authors argue that while the strategic logic behind the "Pivot to Asia" was sound, its implementation fell short of expectations, resulting in few tangible successes. For people like this reader who lived through the "Lost Decade," it will be a delight to read through this well documented and logically ordered narrative of the period's events. There are of course commentators who quibble with details in the story. But the US' weakened position in Asia is a reality, which is important to understand, especially as we prepare for the unforeseeable consequences of the upcoming US presidential elections. For these reasons, this book is a "must-read" for all interested in international relations. Lost Decade by Blackwill (Council of Foreign Relations) and Fontaine (Center for a New American Security) provides a historical analysis that identifies factors associated with the US failure to address Chinese expansionism....Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals. Overall, Lost Decade is a useful examination and critique of the US failure to pivot to Asia.