We're All In This Together: The US-Vietnam Defense Relationship in an Offshore-Balanced Pacific Pivot.

摘要

The United States' 2011 decision to 'Pivot to the Pacific' represents a shift to an Offshore Balancing national grand strategy with renewed focus on the important Asia-Pacific region. Offshore Balancing allows the US to prioritize and reduce its overall worldwide commitments in an era of constrained resources following more than a decade of war in the Middle East. In keeping with the tenets of Offshore Balancing, the United States seeks partners in the Asia-Pacific region to help balance a rising China, particularly in the South China Sea, the primary strategic battlespace in which the Pacific Pivot will be executed. Vietnam, as a South China Sea littoral nation, is poised to become one of the strongest of these regional 'balancers.' This paper explores the US decision for the Pacific Pivot in the context of an Offshore Balancing strategy, outlines the history of an increasingly-warming relationship between the US and Vietnam, and suggests three primary 'pillars' on which the United States can base future defense cooperation with Vietnam in order to ensure that country can become a credible balancer and significant strategic partner for the US in South Asia.