Asia-Pacific, Headlines, North America

POLITICS: Unilateralism Threatens U.S. Role in Asia

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 2004 (IPS) - In a major review of U.S. relations with Asia, two high-profile task forces are urging the Bush administration to pay significantly more attention to the region and adopt a less unilateralist posture in its dealings there.

Organised by the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation, the task forces – one composed of leading U.S. policymakers and scholars, the other consisting of Asian experts – also concluded 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 U.S. influence in the region could diminish sharply, particularly if it continues to take its traditional allies for granted.

"The U.S. 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 U.S. 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 à be wrong to assume that it can never happen," according to the task force.

The Asian group also stressed that Washington must persuade the region " the U.S. is not seeking domination in international affairs, but rather leadership within the world."

Noting 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. tendency to use regional consultations principally as an occasion for pressing other participants on U.S. 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 U.S. at the table."

The task force reports, which represent the culmination of the Asia Foundation’s ‘Americas Role in Asia’ project, come as the administration prepares for a second term with a new national security line-up that could have a major impact on U.S.-Asian relations.

Tuesday’s expected announcement that National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice will succeed Secretary of State Colin Powell confirms that a far-reaching reshuffle is underway. Powell’s deputy, long-time Asia hand Richard Armitage, was also expected to resign soon, a U.S. official told journalists Tuesday.

Some observers here believe a major purge of senior foreign-service professionals, who are thought by the White House insufficiently loyal to President George W Bush, may be in the cards. In his daily newsletter another well-connected Asia hand, Chris Nelson, suggested Monday that Assistant Secretary of State for Asian Affairs Jim Kelly might also be on the way out.

If indeed such a purge is underway, it would seem likely that political appointees considered more attuned to the hard-line coalition led by Vice President Dick Cheney that has dominated U.S. foreign policy since 9/11 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 jeopardise, rather than advance, the U.S. position in Asia as a whole, according to both Asia Foundation task forces, which expressed a strong preference for U.S. engagement with China, in particular.

"Any U.S. effort to promote the containment of China would be at best premature, and at worst, highly counterproductive," said the U.S. 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 U.S. would forfeit China’s help in managing vital challenges in the region and elsewhere," it added.

Similarly, the Asia group stressed 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, if Washington "truly wants to find a way to terminate (Pyongyang’s) nuclear programme, it must talk to North Korea directly, even in the context of (the ongoing) six-party talks" – a position strongly opposed by hard-liners around Cheney and in the Pentagon.

Similarly, the U.S. task force argued that Washington engage in "dialogue at various levels" to ensure that Pyongyang "undergo an evolutionary process combining internal reforms with broadening external contacts."

"Neither collapse nor conflict (with the North) is a desirable goal," it concluded.

On Southeast Asia, the Asian group called for Washington to support the further integration of ASEAN (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 recognise 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 added.

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 U.S. 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 programmes.