Asia Doesn't Need More Militarism

The U.S. and its allies are not going to have the military predominance in East Asia that they once had.

Walter Russell Mead offers up a militarist’s fantasy solution for East Asia:

Political, diplomatic and economic stability in East Asia can come only after a return to something like the military predominance that 15 years of ineffectual American policy has frittered away.

The U.S. and its allies are not going to have the military predominance in East Asia that they once had. No matter how much our government fritters away on higher military spending and military buildups in the region, that is never coming back. Pretending that this is the only way to preserve stability in East Asia is just an excuse to jack up the military budget without thinking, and it risks fueling the instability it is supposedly preventing.