Asia & the Pacific

Belfer Center experts on the U.S.-China relationship and Middle East issues shared thoughts on the significance of the unexpected Iran-Saudi Arabia agreement brokered by China. 

Stephen Walt argues that in a multipolar world, the United States will be in an ideal situation to play the other major powers off against each other, and it can let its partners in Eurasia bear more of the burden of their own security. 

Stephen Walt explains why Putin understood that Ukraine's fate was more important to Russia than it was to the West.

Andrew D. Taffer and David Wallsh argue that China's effort to erode U.S. alliances has been incoherent and undisciplined, strengthening, rather than weakening, U.S. alliances in the Indo-Pacific and producing an energized U.S.-led coalition poised to constrain Beijing for years to come. 

Mina Pollmann details how the Japanese prime minister's U.S. visit, and the latest 2+2 consultations, emphasized an even-closer alliance amid Japan's changing security posture.

Chris Li spoke to Newsweek about how the outcome of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections and Republican control of the House of Representatives might constrain the Biden administration's foreign policy options on China.

Stephen Walt outlines four possible futures for the trans-Atlantic alliance.

For now, China's increasing nationalism and assertive government mean that the United States will probably have to spend more time managing its superpower rivalry. But by avoiding ideological demonization, shunning misleading Cold War analogies, and maintaining its alliances, America can rise to the challenge, argues Joseph S. Nye.

Stephen Walt explains the concept of the security dilemma and argues for leaders to consider whether a policy they believed was benign was unintentionally making others nervous, then to consider  whether the action in question could be modified in ways that alleviated (some of) those fears.

Stephen Walt critiques Biden's foreign policy record and argues for creative solutions to the problems of a new era.