Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

US Strategy in the Pacific – Geopolitical Positioning for the Twenty-First Century

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14650045.2011.631200

1557-3028

David Scott,

Arctic and Russian Policy Studies

Abstract This article seeks to apply IR theory to the US presence in the Pacific. It analyses the ways in which geopolitical considerations of position are at the heart of US security strategy in the Pacific. It argues that America's long-term security position in the Pacific is a basic geopolitical matter; be it in terms of traditional geopolitics (regional position as "location") and in terms of critical geopolitics (regional position as "power and aspirations"). In looking at US security strategy in the Pacific, three geopolitical features are noticeable: (1) Mahanian seapower tenets, (2) overlapping competitive US-China concerns focused around the two island chains in the Western Pacific, and (3) the internal balancing carried out by the US in the Pacific which is particularly focused on Guam. Notes 1. G. Ó Tuathail and J. Agnew, 'Geopolitics and Discourse: Practical Geopolitical Reasoning in American Foreign Policy', Political Geography 11/2 (1992) pp. 190–202. 2. J. Agnew and S. 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