America in the Asian Century

With the sudden rise of China, US leaders see preventing it from becoming a regional hegemon as a key strategic necessity, according to US elder statesman, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In his view, the main objective of U.S. engagement in Asia should be to support an equilibrium that discourages any one power from acting in an excessively assertive fashion towards its neighbors. For the US, this means maintaining a complex partnership with China and an alliance with Japan, designed to maintain a relatively stable even if delicate equilibrium.

Brzezinski disagrees with much of the US foreign policy establishment regarding the need for a strong relationship with India to balance China. American interests and stability in Asia would be better served by America staying free of any binding ties with competing powers on the Asian mainland. The future stability, not to mention power potential, of India is problematic. Too many people have been mesmerized simply by the fact that India is as massively populated as China.