Unilateralism threatens US
role in Asia By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - In a major review of US relations
with Asia, two high-profile task forces are urging the
administration of President George W Bush to pay
significantly more attention to the region and adopt a
less unilateralist posture in its dealings there.
Organized by the San Francisco-based Asia
Foundation, the task forces - one composed of leading US
policymakers and scholars, the other consisting of Asian
experts - also concluded that Washington should be more
flexible in dealing with North Korea and more engaged in
transnational issues other than terrorism and nuclear
proliferation.
Both groups also warned that US
influence in the region could diminish sharply,
particularly if it continues to take its traditional
allies for granted.
"The US must be extremely
careful of not letting its penchant for unilateralism
undermine or damage its alliance with its traditional
allies Japan and South Korea," according to the report
of the Asian working group, which was headed by
Singaporean diplomat Tommy Koh and the former permanent
secretary of Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Ministry,
Farooq Sobhan. "Continued unilateralism can create the
impression that the US is contemptuous of Japan and
other 'friends and allies'," it added.
While it
is unlikely that either Japan or South Korea will
distance itself from Washington, "it would ... be wrong
to assume that it can never happen", said the task
force.
The Asian group also stressed that
Washington must persuade the region "the US is not
seeking domination in international affairs, but rather
leadership within the world".
Noting that the
administration's "sometimes bellicose rhetoric has not
exactly helped" its image, the group said Washington
"must be able to speak with both legitimacy and
understanding".
At the same time, the US task
force stressed that while the Bush administration's
muscular foreign policy may be less resented in Asia
than in other regions, "it is increasingly clear that
the United States needs urgently to adjust its policies
toward Asia and adapt them to the new circumstances that
are emerging".
In particular, according to the
US experts, who were led by retired ambassadors Michael
Armacost and J Stapleton Roy, "America's apparent
preference for bilateral arrangements, its preoccupation
with issues outside of Asia, and its evident desire to
retain maximum freedom of diplomatic action have too
often combined to make the United States appear to be
the odd man out on issues of regional cooperation.
"In time, this may alter Asian perceptions of
the United States as an inherent part of Asian
institutions," the group added, warning, "A US tendency
to use regional consultations principally as an occasion
for pressing other participants on US priorities rather
than listening carefully to their concerns will surely
reinforce a growing desire of Asians to meet on key
issues - particularly economic matters - without the US
at the table."
The task force reports, which
represent the culmination of the Asia Foundation's
"America's Role in Asia" project, come as the
administration prepares for a second term with a new
national-security lineup that could have a major impact
on US-Asian relations.
Tuesday's announcement
that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will
succeed Secretary of State Colin Powell confirms that a
far-reaching reshuffle is under way. Powell's deputy,
longtime Asia hand Richard Armitage, is also to resign.
Some observers here believe a major purge of
senior foreign-service professionals, who are thought by
the White House insufficiently loyal to President Bush,
may be in the cards. In his daily newsletter another
well-connected Asia hand, Chris Nelson, suggested on
Monday that assistant secretary of state for Asian
affairs Jim Kelly might also be on the way out.
If indeed such a purge is under way, it would
seem likely that political appointees considered more
attuned to the hardline coalition led by Vice President
Dick Cheney that has dominated US foreign policy since
September 11, 2001, are likely to expand their power, a
shift that could well result in less, rather than more,
flexibility toward North Korea.
That could also
presage a reversal in the gradual warming in ties with
China that took place after the Hainan spy-plane crisis
was successfully defused by Powell's adroit diplomacy in
the spring of 2001.
Such developments would be
likely to jeopardize, rather than advance, the US
position in Asia as a whole, according to both Asia
Foundation task forces, which expressed a strong
preference for US engagement with China in particular.
"Any US effort to promote the containment of
China would be at best premature, and at worst highly
counterproductive," said the US group, which called for
maintaining Washington's forward-based military forces
in the region while engaging in "more in-depth strategic
discussions" with Beijing.
"No important Asian
country would join such an effort, and the US would
forfeit China's help in managing vital challenges in the
region and elsewhere," it said.
Similarly, the
Asia group stressed that the Bush administration still
appears suspended between a policy of containing and
isolating China and one of helping it integrate into the
"world order based on market economy and political
democracy". The report strongly suggested the latter was
much preferable, and achievable primarily through
economic engagement.
As to North Korea, the
Asians were even more direct, asserting that if
Washington "truly wants to find a way to terminate
[Pyongyang's] nuclear program, it must talk to North
Korea directly, even in the context of [the ongoing]
six-party talks" - a position strongly opposed by
hardliners around Cheney and in the Pentagon.
Similarly, the US task force argued that
Washington should engage in "dialogue at various levels"
to ensure that Pyongyang undergoes "an evolutionary
process combining internal reforms with broadening
external contacts".
"Neither collapse nor
conflict [with North Korea] is a desirable goal," it
concluded.
On Southeast Asia, the Asian group
called for Washington to support the further integration
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its
institutions, "go beyond using a conventional military
approach in combating terrorism [in the region], and
rely more on greater law enforcement cooperation and
intelligence sharing".
The United States must
also recognize that "the struggle for the hearts and
minds of the [region's] Muslim community is very much an
internal struggle" rather than one that lends itself to
external intervention, particularly by Washington, it
said.
On South Asia, both panels called, among
other measures, for increased support for the Afghan
government, greater involvement in containing and
resolving conflicts in Nepal and Sri Lanka, and greater
public-diplomacy and education efforts aimed
particularly at the region's Muslim population.
On India-Pakistan relations, the US task force
said Washington should "anticipate a new crisis and be
prepared to respond immediately", while developing a
long-term strategy to strengthen the ongoing peace
process and support expanded bilateral exchange
programs.
