The Politics of Power Projection: The Pivot to Asia, Its Failure, and the Future of American Primacy
Journal: The Chinese Journal of International Politics
Year: 2021

Abstract Why did the Obama administration's attempted pivot (or “rebalance”) to Asia fail? In this article, we argue that three interrelated domestic factors are to blame: hyper-partisanship in Washington, DC; the lack of a compelling foreign-policy narrative to make the pivot intelligible and attractive to a broad slice of the political class and domestic public; and the related failure to convince enough Americans that the pivot was necessary to boost their economic fortunes. These domestic st