Nicholas D. Anderson responds to Nina Silove's spring 2016 article, "The Pivot before the Pivot: U.S. Strategy to Preserve the Power Balance in Asia."

The United States’ strategic reorientation toward the Asia Pacific began not under the Barack Obama administration, but under the George W. Bush administration. As part of this reorientation, the Bush administration pursued a series of military, political, and economic policies aimed at engaging with and balancing against China, not containing it.