U.S Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is meeting with officials in Japan and the Philippines to discuss defense cooperation to deter China’s aggressions in the South China Sea. He plans to offer more significant defense support to the Philippines, reaffirming promises the U.S made to the Philippines in the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty. In recent years, confrontations between China and the Philippines over control of the South China Sea have become more and more severe. The visit from Hegseth serves as a statement to make it clear to China that the U.S will defend the Philippines and that their aggressive behavior will not be tolerated.
The U.S has shown that during this administration it is moving away from Europe and getting more involved with the Asia-Pacific region. This is likely because Russia is perceived to be a less severe threat than it used to be, while China is perceived as a rising threat the U.S’s hegemonic status. Russia is losing power trying to continue its war in Ukraine—the economy is collapsing, the population is aging, and the country has become a pariah due to its unnecessary and prolonged use of force against the Ukrainians. Meanwhile, China’s economy is booming, it is building up a large, strong military, and it is starting to exert force to gain power within its region, making it a much bigger threat to the U.S.
This shift of focus to a new major threat reflects a potential shift in the power hierarchy that could greatly affect what international relations will look like in the near future. China’s rise to power, if unchecked, could realign the global status quo and cause turmoil. To prevent this, the U.S and other status quo powers will likely continue to focus their defense efforts on Southeast Asia, forming strategic security alliances to contain China and strengthening current alliances such as the Quad (including Japan) and the U.S-Philippines defense agreement.
The actions the U.S government has been taking in foreign policy recently align with Offshore Balancing. This grand strategy involves addressing the homeland first while using alliances and other indirect actions to maintain power balances in three critical regions—Europe, the Persian Gulf, and the Asia-Pacific region. China is the biggest current threat to the power balances in any of these regions, which has led the U.S to take action in the region to address it. The shift of focus away from Europe and towards strengthening critical Asia-Pacific alliances—like those with the Philippines and Japan—is evidence of how Offshore Balancing strategy is influencing current U.S foreign policy.