Balancing on the Pivot

How China’s Rise and Offshore Balancing Affect Japan’s and India’s Roles as Balancers in the Twenty-First Century

Lt Col Reginald J. McClam, USMC
2016, 107 pages
ISBN: 978-1-58566-257-9
Cost: $12, AU Press Code: P-110

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The United States has used primacy as its grand strategy for some time now. While this strategy has ensured US hegemony, it has also fiscally drained American power and left the United States with a poor global standing. As such, rethinking US grand strategy should be considered in order to maintain its relative position in the twenty-first century. The United States is poised to pivot east, to meet the demands of China as a rising challenger. The question I raise here is how viable would an alternative grand strategy in Asia be? There is considerable enthusiasm in some corners of the policymaking world for the United States to return to a balancing strategy in Asia. Formerly known as offshore balancing, the strategy aims to conserve American power as it deals with the challenges of a rising China. One important, albeit overlooked element of offshore balancing is: Who plays the role of the balancer? This thesis seeks to answer that question.