The Security Strategy Of Obama’s Administration To Northeast Asia

This thesis focuses on the research on current regional strategy of USA government,i.e. to search for the countermeasures of China by looking through and analyzing theNortheast Asia security strategy in the first term of Obama’s administration, as well asevaluating its strategy influence. The main contents in this thesis include five parts:Analysis on the environment of Northeast Asia security strategy of Obamaadministration, analysis on the target and strength, analysis on the content,multi-dimensional perspectives of each state’s strategy, effectiveness evaluation andChina’s actions. The author tries to put the regional strategy of USA in new period inthe background of drastic change era of global pattern and global, Asia-pacificmacroscopic pattern, in order to search for the features of Northeast Asia securitystrategy of Obama’s administration, the inter relations among the strategies of USAagainst China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Mongolia and to extract thecommon contents, so as to realize the organic combination of macroscopic andmicrocosmic level analysis. The author attempts to analyze the strategic measures ofUSA from the strategic viewpoint by collation and analysis of the above contents, andevaluate and analyze the influence of the USA regional strategy on China objectivelyand fully to do his best to achieve profound theory and accurate statement.The main part of this thesis is divided into the following five sections.The main content of first section is the environment analysis of Northeast Asiasecurity strategy of Obama’s administration. Obama shoulders the historicalresponsibilities of adjusting the internal and external strategy and sustaining US globalleadership during his tenure. On one side, the Northeast Asia region has become the key point of US global strategy because it’s full of great powers and middle and smallcountries are in strategic locations, and its global economic weight increases; on theother side, the Northeast Asia region has always been the obstacle of establishingAmerican hegemonic order due to check and balance of China and Russia, out ofbalance of regional power shifts and complicated relationship among countries, whichcauses the Obama administration unable to give up the desire of dominating theNortheast Asia region, but also has to intervene the regional issues with cautiousness.Three main theories in the classical geopolitics show the special geographical positionin Asia-pacific area of northeast Asia, which is a significant guidance forunderstanding the regional strategy dilemma of Obama administration. Japan andSouth Korea in the continental margin zone in the Northeast Asia are great support forUS to consolidate its Northeast Asia ascendancy. North Korea, East China Sea, TaiwanStrait with continent and sea staggering are the regional conflicts of Northeast Asiaconcentrating place, three geographical political conflicts of North Korea to SouthKorea, China to Japan, Taiwan Strait to the Mainland become the strong weight ofObama administration for digesting the strength changes and impacts of both sides ofPacific. China and Russia in the deep continental hinterland of Northeast Asia is themain power for checking and balancing the establishment of US hegemony and theincrease of the two countries’ strategic strength make the US feel restless. In general,the Northeast Asia strategic environment is not only an opportunity but also achallenge for America, the US strategic superiority against other parties is notfluctuated though it is more difficult to establishing a full hegemonic order in thisregion.The main content of the second section is analysis on the target and strength ofObama administration’s Northeast Asia security strategy. Formulating clear strategictarget and using resources economically are the prerequisites of the successful grandstrategy, as well as the “setback” to the Obama administration left by the previousadministration. The target of US regional strategy in new period generally consists ofmilitary, economy and politics. The military target is relatively miscellaneous, whichincludes sustaining the maritime superiority against China, inhabiting the North Korea nuclear threatens, decreasing the Far East maritime forces influence of Russia,completing military deployment and adjustment in due time, assuring the supply ofmilitary strategic resources. The economy is much clearer, which includes establishingan “open” integrated economic frame across the pacific area, safeguarding thecompetition superiority of manufacturing industry against countries in Northeast Asia.The political target is comprised of two parts: Alliance system dominated by America,coordination tradition and new partner system. Taking a general view of regionalstrategy target of Obama administration, we can see that it has clear direction andstrong realizability. America is the only super power in the world with leading overallnational strength. The economic crisis occurred in2008impaired the strengthsuperiority to some extend, but the influence was not even in different aspects. In themilitary field, the military finance and expense is limited, but the regional militaryfinance resources guarantee of Obama administration was not fluctuated. In theeconomy field, since US had a sound economy foundation, regional economic strategywas limited by the financial crisis, and the strategic resources which could be suppliedin short term is limited. In the political field, the national strength was rarely affectedby economic crisis, and regional political strategic resources were adequate. To sum up,the bottleneck of realizing regional strategy resources for Obama administration hasn’tbeen found.The main content of third section is the content analysis of Northeast Asia securitystrategy of Obama’s administration. The grand strategy can only endue with practicesignificance to the strategy by enriching with specific strategy content. The regionalstrategy of Obama administration can also be classified as the strategic target,reviewing its strategic measures from the military, economy and politics field. On onehand, The US army sustains the front edge deterrent force of Northeast Asia area bymilitary deployment and adjustment, the tasks of army is much clearer and the attack ismore obvious; on the other hand, the US military improves the suppression capabilityto China by innovation of skills and tactics. The Obama administration opens regionaleconomy integration conjuncture quickly by joining in TPP, and takes over the positiveposition of economy cooperation of Northeast Asia region by entering into US–Korea Free Trade Agreement, so as to spar for time for adjustment of domestic industrialstructure and assisting resurgence of manufacturing industry. Facing the complicatedsituation that the conflicts of Northeast Asia islands activate simultaneously, Obamaadministration leads the regional power direction by adopting different interventionstandpoints. Meanwhile, the US regional strategy in new period pays attentions torelying on the information age background, strengthening the ideological penetrationwith the direct communication opportunity with China and Russia, to impair thestrategy strength of the two countries checking and balancing America. Taking a viewof the content of Obama administration’s Northeast Asia security strategy, we can seethat the pattern is of more magnificence, the subjects are much wider, the areas aremore comprehensive, the measures are of more variety, the content continuity is morecohesive, which promotes the realization of strategy effect greatly.The main content of the fourth section is multi-dimensional perspectives of eachstate’s strategy in Northeast Asia by Obama administration. The strategy againstcountries in Northeast Asia is the basic part of regional security strategy of Obamaadministration. Obama has to formulate specific strategies with particularity anddifference to operate because the countries in this region are of different situations andhave different relationships with America. Among which, US strategy against Japan innew period focuses on suppressing Yukio Hatoyama’s diplomacy challenge, leadingNaoto Kan, Noda Yoshihiko cabinet diplomatic line, to finally safeguard the basicrelationship frame “Japan’s Subordinate Status in U.S.-Japan Alliance” and consolidatethe foundation of US front superiority. Obama administration’s strategy against SouthKorea stresses on inducing South Korea to participate in the regional strategy ofrestricting China, catering to the tough North Policy of Lee Myung-bak administration,inducing South Korea to connect the rise of China with the inter-Korean relationsdeterioration to participate in the strategy of guard against China. Since therelationship between US and China has a wide influence, Obama administrationdivides the strategic area against China into global and regional levels. In the globallevel, US government maintains the basic cooperation relationship with China to bededicated jointly to solving the global problems. In regional level, US government reinforces cooperation between allied states and maintains the overall superiorityagainst China by taking advantage of suspicion and fear to China of the adjacentcountries. In the strategy against North Korea, Obama administration breaks itsdependence on multilateral dialogue mechanism, increases the pressure to North Koreaby using global security mechanism and regional military alliances, and avoidsoverpressure which will cause collapse of North Korea. The core of Obamaadministration strategy against each country is “Divide and Rule”, in whichsuppression and cooptation exist at the same time, increase the difficulty of eachcountry to ally to handle regional security problems.The main content of the fifth section is effectiveness evaluation of Obamaadministration’s Northeast Asia security strategy and China’s actions. Effectivenessevaluation of strategy is the basic index determining whether continuing the strategy,and also the summary of previous stage strategy practice. The positive effect in thetarget of Obama administration’s Northeast Asia security strategy is in the majority, thenegative effect outside the target is not adequate to balance out the achievements, thus,the expected effect is basically achieved. The effectiveness of US regional strategy innew period has been improved, and the overall strategy consumption has been undergood control. In the strategy effect, the regional strategy of Obama administration hasbeen agreed by major countries in the region except that it took side with Japan inisland conflicts which brought blames from other countries. During the second term,Obama administration may trim the conflicts between global strategic contraction andNortheast Asia strategy etc. based on the existing regional strategy so as to perfect thestrategy against Northeast Asia area. The success of Obama administration’s regionalstrategy reflects the rugged rising road of China and five bottlenecks during theprocess. China only can get rid of the limits of thinking and face the future, andexplore the maximum strategic opportunity period value to promote the improvementof the security situation of Northeast Asia area by “self-change”.