Lost Decade: The Us Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power

"The "Pivot to Asia" was first announced by the Obama administration in 2011 with the aim to redirect America's strategic focus to the Indo-Pacific. Not all went according to plan. This book tells the story of Washington's attempted reorientation and the simultaneous rise of Chinese power and assertiveness. It examines the impulse behind the Pivot, analyzes the challenges the policy posed for America's global presence and commitments, and investigates where and how it faltered. It assesses responses to the Pivot and strategic trendlines across countries in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and details China's aggressive actions throughout the 2010s. More than ten years after its announcement, a careful examination of the evidence indicates that the United States did not, in fact, pivot to Asia. This "lost decade" coincided with a massive expansion of Chinese power and assertiveness, a deepening of America's domestic divisions, and rising doubts in the world about US intentions, staying power, and competence. If the 1965 escalation in Vietnam and the 2003 invasion of Iraq represent America's greatest post-World War II failures of commission, Washington's collective failure to respond adequately to growing Chinese power across the 2010s stands as perhaps the most consequential US policy omission since 1945. The text draws on lessons from the policy's faulty implementation to propose a renewed US pivot to Asia"