Far from Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, as the Group of 7 wealthy democracies gathers in Italy to discuss a range of old, entrenched challenges, the nature of American power is being transformed across the region that Washington sees as crucial for the century to come: the Asia-Pacific.
Here, the United States no longer presents itself as the confident guarantor of security, a trust-us-we¡¯ve-got-this superpower. The terrain is too vast, China¡¯s rise too great a threat. So the United States has been offering to be something else ¡ª an eager teammate for military modernization and tech development.
¡°In the past, our experts would talk about a hub-and-spokes model for Indo-Pacific security,¡± Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said this month at a global defense conference in Singapore. ¡°Today we¡¯re seeing something quite different.¡±
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