Power Shift: How the West Can Adapt and Thrive in an Asian Century

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In The Media

Power Shift: How the West Can Adapt and Thrive in an Asian Century

To maintain power in a prospective Asian century, the United States must sustain its military superiority, deepen and expand its economic ties, and pursue a realistic and multifaceted approach to China.

By Ashley J. Tellis

Published on Jan 22, 2010

Source: The German Marshall Fund of the United States

Power Shift: How the West Can Adapt and Thrive in Without a doubt, the Asian miracle has been owed greatly to the preponderance of power that the United States enjoyed during the postwar period. This dominance created a distinctive international order in Europe and Asia, which allowed the regional states to emerge from the devastation of the Second World War into the success stories that they are today. Although enlightened elites in these countries certainly contributed to this achievement through both their conscious pursuit of growth-maximizing economic strategies and their investment in appropriate national institutions, their effectiveness ultimately derived from the two complementary benefits provided by superior American power—assured security and assured markets—which when synergized had explosive systemic effects.

The United States provided assured security to its Asian and European partners through complex alliances which, despite their differences, delivered certain common dividends: Washington guaranteed the security of its smaller partners and thus enabled them to mitigate the most acute tradeoffs between guns and butter within each country while simultaneously avoiding the destructive security competition that might have otherwise arisen between them. These gains, consequently, permitted the alliances to successfully deter common external threats such as the Soviet Union (and initially China as well).

About the Author

Ashley J. Tellis

Former Senior Fellow

Ashley J. Tellis was a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Recent Work

Paper
Multipolar Dreams, Bipolar Realities: India’s Great Power Future
- Ashley J. Tellis
Commentary
India Sees Opportunity in Trump’s Global Turbulence. That Could Backfire.
- Ashley J. Tellis

Economy Trade Security Military Foreign Policy North America United States South Asia East Asia China

Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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