To understand the logic that is driving the Bush administration's redesign of U.S. military strategy, overlay two maps. The first focuses on wealth and population. It highlights Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, some of the world's richest and most important trading nations. China, India and Indonesia also stand out as three of the world's most populous nations. Those three countries are also undergoing transitions that, if all goes successfully, could move them into the first group of nations.
The second map highlights tensions in the region. Ominously, it is a riot of color, stretching from the North-South standoff on the Korean Peninsula, through the Taiwan Strait and down to the South China Sea, arching through the Indonesian archipelago and encompassing South Asia and the various conflicts there -- which include two nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars against each other.
"There are a number of potential confrontation spots throughout the Pacific," explained Maj. Gen. Paul Hester, head of the U.S. Forces in Japan, in an interview last week. "While we have no reasons to believe that any of them would begin a war tomorrow, they are a clear reason why the United States has to have a strong presence in Asia."