This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of US foreign policy throughout the Indo-Pacific. Home to around 60 percent of the world's population; most of the world's largest and fastest-growing economies; around half of the world's states with full nuclear capabilities; and a complicated web of unresolved tensions, disputes, and conflicts, the Indo-Pacific is arguably the most diverse, dynamic, and contested region on Earth. US strategy there has evolved over centuries, with its physical presence going broadly unchallenged since at least the middle of the last century. However, the rapid development and expanding influence of China - alongside the growth of India, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and others - as well as political and economic crises and disruptions within the United States itself, mean that in recent times the US has come to occupy a newly uncertain position and perceive a range of highly unfamiliar challenges.

To explore how the US has managed, and continues to manage, its regional history, and how it approaches the modern-day landscape of an Indo-Pacific only recently normalised within international political discourse, the book contains 33 newly commissioned chapters from leading experts in the field. It does so partly with help from the more traditional realms of International Relations theory as well as more critical realms. It also unpacks US policy and strategy as it pertains to regional governments, states, and multilateral institutions, as well as to pressing issues including inter-state security, human rights, trade, artificial intelligence, and cyber strategy. It does so in four parts:

• History of the US in the Indo-Pacific
• Theorising US Policy and Presence in the Indo-Pacific
• The US and Indo-Pacific States and Institutions
• The US and Indo-Pacific Issues

The book is designed to be of interest to students and scholars of the US in the Indo-/Asia Pacific; the international relations of the Indo-/Asia Pacific; and US foreign policy.

About the Author

Oliver Turner is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Nicola Nymalm is Assistant Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University (FHS) and an Associate Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) in Stockholm.

Wali Aslam is Reader (Associate Professor) in International Relations at the University of Bath, UK.

Reviews

"The volume is a collection of comprehensive, up-to-date, and balanced analyses of US policy in the Indo-Pacific by top-notch experts. A must reading for students and practitioners of American foreign policy and Indo-Pacific affairs."

- Chung-in Moon, Chairman of the Sejong Institute and Professor Emeritus, Yonsei University

"In the 2020s, the United States is staking its credibility on the stabilising role it plays in a region defined as the Indo-Pacific. This book brings an exceptional diversity of global scholarship to bear on understanding the many dimensions and long pedigree of America's Indo-Pacific policies, which are about much more than the military balancing of China."

- Rory Medcalf, Professor and Head, National Security College, Australian National University, and author of Indo-Pacific Empire: China, America and the Contest for the World's Pivotal Region.

"A timely and valuable contribution to understanding how the idea of the Indo-Pacific is taking shape as a normalised region, and how it has become enveloped into the dominant geopolitical rivalries of our era. This Handbook offers a wide range of perspectives and voices, and covers issues, actors, and methodological approaches that help to uncover the nature and significance of America's role in the evolution of this construct."

- Rosemary Foot, Professor Emerita, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford.

Book Information
ISBN 9780367863142
Author Oliver Turner
Format Hardback
Page Count 508
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 1100g