Managing the Global Impact of America's Rebalance to Asia: in black and white

America's rebalance to Asia has made slow but steady progress on the military front, but it has yet to achieve the scale of success anticipated when it was first announced in January 2012. The reasons for this are several, including defense budget cuts due to sequestration, problems jump-starting (and sustaining) the diplomatic and economic aspects of the rebalance, security developments outside of Asia that have demanded more attention (and a strategic response) from Washington, and a parallel need to reassure non-Asian allies and partner states that the United States will not abandon them as it pivots to the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, it is this last task of reassurance that may be the trickiest to get right as this pivot proceeds, given America's multiple and at times competing global interests and responsibilities. Simply put, making sure that Asia's "gain" is not seen as a net loss for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, or any other area of rising strategic importance will be critical to the future success of the rebalance. Exploring how that might be done and what it might entail is the central aim of this monograph. Toward that end, the authors first review what has and has not been done to set the pivot in place. They then examine a broad range of European, Middle Eastern, and other regional reactions to the rebalance, highlighting what they suggest about the ability and willingness of U.S. allies and regional partners outside of Asia to take on defense missions once performed by American forces or to contribute in some way to the security of Asia as America turns its gaze toward this region. On this basis, recommendations are made for implementing the rebalance in ways that do not shortchange security in other important areas of the globe, and that might even draw on contributions from them.