Barbantan, Mircea Alin; (2023) Pacific Dream? The evolution of US strategic culture and alliances in the Indo-Pacific, 2001-2022. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis analyses the evolution of US alliances in the Indo-Pacific region from the beginning of the George W. Bush presidency in 2001, until the middle of the Joe Biden presidency, in 2022. In doing so, it employs the concept of ‘Pacific Dream’, a political, economic, and security vision for Asia that the US has largely adhered to since the end of the Second World War and that was articulated by President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry in an April 2013 speech in Tokyo. It views this ‘Pacific Dream’ primarily through the lens of strategic culture – a domain within international relations theory which assesses the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of a country’s foreign policy strategy. Adopting this approach, the thesis assesses the primary alliance network of the US in the Indo-Pacific, the ‘San Francisco System’, consisting of Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand. It assesses whether this alliance network has aided the US in achieving the foreign policy objectives of the ‘Pacific Dream’ and the degree to which it has been superseded by the Quad and Quad Plus. The thesis argues that US policy-makers have come to regard China as posing the greatest challenge to their worldview in the Indo-Pacific, and it explores notions of a ‘new Cold War’, and the ‘containment’ of China. It also examines the emergence of the Quad, an alliance between the US, Japan, Australia, and India, and the Quad Plus (encompassing, in addition, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand), which are both aiming to compete with China in the Indo-Pacific. The thesis analyses the influence that US allies have had on US strategic culture, making the case that they have played a greater role in shaping the US Pacific Dream – and US strategic culture - than is usually credited.

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