US naval strategy toward Northeast Asia: Past, present, and futures

The history of the United States' role in Asian affairs bears a distinct ma ritime and naval legacy. In turn, that history contributed significantly to the emergence of a US naval tradition. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th countries these two facets interacted in momentous ways, transforming the United States into a Pacific power. US strategy toward the region throu ghout the Second World War, the Cold War, and today's post-Cold War era has been markedly maritime in nature, despite the prominence of two major land wars in Korea and Vietnam. Although the post-Cold War era has broadened US security policy in sometimes policy in sometimes controversial ways, and t he US Navy has adapted to these changes, the Asia-Pacific region has not sh ed its maritime character. While part of larger global shifts, US policies toward its two Northeast Asian allies in Japan and South Korea- with China looming in the background-have retained echoes of the former Cold War and h arbored hints of a potential new Cold War. There are heightened prospects f or US-ROK, US-Japan, and ROK-Japan naval cooperation. However, those prospects are influenced by the chances for ROK-DPRK tension reduction (perhaps leading to unification) and by shifting priorities with in the evolving defense policies of the US, Japan, the ROK, and the PKC. If the three Asian states pursue relatively bold and innovative security poli cies, it could have serious consequences for the conventional wisdom regard ing US policy in Asia.