Fourth, expectations of US leadership past and future. The tension may center on Tay’s observation in his book that “The US presence has benefited Asia on balance and – so long as they do not seek to contain China or Asian regionalism, nor to dominate and exploit the region – Americans will be the essential partners in Asia’s rise.” Words like “on balance,” domination, exploitation, and his references in other parts of the book to US hegemony and the need for “post-American American leadership” are closer to the views of Mahbubani than Desker’s steadfast realism that eschews moral judgment or Koh’s more benign portrayal of the US as a “stakeholder in Asia’s peace and prosperity.”
Predicting trend lines in the regional and global distribution of power, getting the right mix of values and interests in building trans-Pacific ties, connecting the alliance system and US involvement in Asian-driven institutions, getting the right historical time lines – these are the heady but unavoidable issues of the day. Is there a national capital where these issues are not being debated, even if the policy nuances differ? Is there a national capital where a careful assessment of the debates within Singapore is not of value? Stay tuned for the next and possibly bigger installment: “Debating China.”