Review of "American Grand Strategy and East Asian Security in the Twenty-First Century," by David C. Kang

 Review of

American Grand Strategy and East Asian Security in the Twenty-First Century, by David C. Kang, ISBN 9781107167230

Five out of five stars

The real state of East Asia

 The United States now considers the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to be its main geopolitical rival in the world today. Towards that end, the leaders of the United States from the administration of Barack Obama to the two administrations of Donald Trump have engaged in a series of actions designed to thwart the PRC. Chinese leaders are being portrayed as devious actors bent on domination of their region of the world. The American leaders have tried to enlist the nations that border the PRC in  what is a soft form of the containment strategy that was used against the Soviet Union. 

 However, as is demonstrated in this book those border nations, primarily South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam do not share this view of the PRC. In fact, public opinion in South Korea is more fearful of Japan than the rise of the PRC. This is due to the near half century of rigid and at times brutal colonization of Korea by Japan. None of these nations exhibit the actions of nations that are concerned about the actions of their giant neighbor. Using graphs and charts, the author demonstrates that defense spending of these nations has been shrinking as the PRC rises as an economic power. 

 The conflicts that have taken place over the disputed islands have been very controlled, the forces on both sides have been the Coast Guards and fishing boats. The only nation that exhibits a belligerent attitude towards neighboring nations is North Korea. This aberration is easily explained as a manageable anomaly. 

  These is a great deal of wisdom and understanding of the current situation in East Asia and how the United States is on the verge of making another colossal foreign policy blunder. The continuation of trying to develop an anti-PRC coalition is doomed to fail and will continue to drive the smaller nations of East Asia into uncomfortable positions of working with the PRC while trying not to alienate the United States.