Impact of Strategic Culture on U.S. Policies for East Asia

: U.S. National Security Strategy calls in part for building on our alliances and friendships to enhance regional security. In so doing, our policy makers often treat these relationships from a global perspective, ignoring local norms and creating unnecessary friction in each relationship. This paper will demonstrate the need for regional and at times sub-regional approaches to collective security, using examples from the Asia-Pacific Region. A necessary comparison between the various styles of defining and achieving security leads to a set of policy recommendations that would best achieve U.S. security interests in the Asia-Pacific Region.