Essay Transcript: Modern America's Pacific

Darryl Weng, University of Southern California, 8 April 2024 Formatting revised for publishing purpose

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Former President Barack Obama saw the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as “a big step forward”. Breaking down trade barriers and cementing America at the center of the Pacific Rim were just a few goals of the TPP. Yet this illustration perceives this big step as one that ignores the livelihoods of many American workers (Englehart). In the broader context, the critique and making of the TPP are the product of America’s attempts to navigate the Pacific’s geopolitical rim whilst attempting to protect America’s labor force. What was once seen as an economic asset during 19th century expansionist America, the Pacific has become a strategic liability for the United States - protecting American interests from Russia, China, and other belligerents. At the same time, America’s Pacific map has significantly simplified since the 19th century. The economic importance of the islands of Oceania and their people has dwindled into insignificance, as America’s Pacific map has removed everything within the Pacific to focus on the Rim where geopolitical interests matter far more than economic interests. America has gone from expansionist to protecting strategic interests.     

The Pacific map began to take its form at the ending of World War II. America’s unique relationship with its territories and spoils taken from the Japanese manifested as militaristic and strategic notions gained special attention from U.S leaders. In How the Pacific World Became West, Professor Mary L. Dudziak of Emory Law - who specializes in foreign relations and diplomatic history among other subjects - confronts the previous scholarly opinions that the Pacific was a frontier for America’s expansionist dreams by arguing that the Pacific was a military outpost for America to both project power and distance harm from citizens (Dudziak). Dudziak points out the waning importance of Pacific islands after the war - “Structures on the island were flattened, and trees and shrubs were dead” (Dudziak 172). The economic value of Pacific Islands were heavily dependent on exotic and valuable natural resources, which, as a result of the war, dropped to insignificance. In turn, inhabitants of the islands lost their place as a trading partner with the United States, cementing the U.S as the war “savior” and whose global importance saw nothing to economically gain from the Oceania communities. America saw the Bikini Islands as an importance only in terms of its location. As Dudziak summarized, “the U.S government sought a space where the world’s most devastating weapon could be tested without disturbing anyone that mattered” (Dudziak 173). An island with rich native history became a testing site and uninhabitable due to residue radioactivity. The islanders could not return and were not compensated for the extensive relocation. Due to “saving” the natives from Japanese occupation, America had no obligation to treat the native populations as sovereign anymore due to the belief that it was both a savior and the new owner of the territories. Dudziak notes how the Bikini Islanders were “shunted from island to island” and experienced “poor conditions at Rongerik, leading to starvation” (Dudziak 174). The inhabitants of Guam were lucky to face a less dreadful predicament than the Bikini Islanders - given far more rights and the minimal liberty to stay in Guam. But the U.S only offered a better “reward” for the Guamanian due to Guam’s strategic position in terms of the Pacific Rim. Conveniently located near the Philippines-China-Japan side of the Pacific Rim, Guam functions as an American military outpost - served as a strategic Air Force base throughout the Cold War (Dudziak 177). Guam remains as a deterrence against belligerents along the Pacific Rim coast. The focus of post-WWII America has never been the islands making up the Pacific community, but rather the coastlines along the Pacific Rim where Russia and China influence reeked. If the islands offered geopolitical value against such belligerents, then they were to be milked and exploited for all military and strategic purposes. 

While post-1945 America foresaw the central military roles the Pacific Islands would play in the newly minted term “Pacific Rim” and profited from its Pacific strategic planning, modern-day America has found the Pacific economically draining and a liability rather than an asset. TPP, as briefly mentioned in the introduction, was part of the Pacific geopolitical dilemma. Originally introduced by Obama and later reversed by Trump, TPP brought two issues at hand. The first was China’s influence on the Pacific Rim. The second was American labor interests. Through TPP, the countries in agreement would have exclusive trading rights and have equal footing in trade - effectively mitigating the first issue whilst expanding the second (Lee). Through Obama, America’s geopolitical position in the Pacific became more central and commanding, bringing China’s Pacific Rim neighbors into an American-influenced trade contract. While Trump’s reversal upended that position, American laborers were gracious to see their incomes not become relative to those of the poorer countries (Lee). Throughout the presidencies, the U.S government found itself trying to balance supporting American laborers vs. warding off the ever-growing influence of China and Russia. In other words, America’s Pacific backyard became a strategic liability with great economic costs. In the aforementioned illustration, Bob Englehart, an acclaimed political cartoonist, is clear where he stands in the Pacific dilemma - in support of American laborers. Since the Trump Administration, Englehart’s sentiment has been spreading across the U.S. The American First notion introduced by former Pres. Trump contributed to the dramatic change in viewing the Pacific as once a strategic asset and now a liability. The America First policy is all about prioritizing American interests, but this policy has effectively isolated America from its allies and reduced leverage on global affairs. As such with that rationale, aiding allies and other countries along the Pacific Rim who are not directly, if not one hundred percent, aligned with American interests is simply too much of a burden for the U.S. During the years of Trump’s presidency, the American government viewed any foreign relation that incurred an unfavorable economic imbalance as a liability. This meant that aligning nations with American interests became difficult and decentralized America’s position in the Pacific Rim. Despite the current presidency’s complete reversal of the America First Policy and return of American presence in the Pacific, many Americans still support the previous administration’s sentiments. The Pacific Rim is still acknowledged as a strategic issue, but, with the recent “America First” notion, the Pacific cannot be entirely seen as an asset by the United States.

Even more recently, American policy directed towards the Pacific Rim has been extremely cautionary, as it even cautions against allies. Centralizing America’s position in the Pacific Rim also means that American industry must remain dominant and, at the very least, nations of the Rim must be reliant on American expertise. While the U.S government is willing to sacrifice economic privileges for influence, foreign nations cannot be even-leveled with America in terms of technology and industry power. This policy and concept is nothing new to America, and has been one of the major worries of late-20th century America. In Rimspeak, Bruce Cumings notes this occurrence through discussing western influence in Asia as America maintains dominance despite the growth of export-led capitalism among emerging nations (Cumings). Cumings highlights how, while America and Japan maintained a successful economic partnership, in the 1960s, “a new duality afflicted the U.S-Japan relationship: Japan should do well, yes … but not so well that it hurts U.S interests” (Cumings 40). Cumings, in his piece, views the Pacific Rim specific to the U.S-Japan relationship, so much so that the Pacific economy revolves around the Tokyo-U.S market (Cumings 41). Due to the success and importance of Japan, its innovations and industrial efficiency is especially of concern to the U.S. In one of today’s most influential books, Chip War, Chris Miller outlines nearly every decade of the relationship dynamic between Japan and the U.S through the production of semiconductor chips. During the late 1900s, Akio Morita and his revolutionizing company Sony became the forefront of the global electronics industry, upending American dominance in the space. Sony’s innovative electronics and innovations in the semiconductor industry brought the U.S government to intervene in Silicon Valley’s personal war with Japan manufacturing (Miller). However, American production remained unmatched until former Texas Instruments executive Morris Chang moved to Taiwan to start Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). While purely Taiwan-sponsored and manufactured with Taiwanese talent, TSMC became intertwined in a deal with Silicon Valley and a Dutch company where Americans would be the sole provider of the innovations within semiconductor software. This served two purposes: 1. Eliminating Japanese dominance in the semiconductor industry 2. Ensuring that TSMC’s success would be entirely dependent on American talent and innovation (Miller). Even now, America has sought more control over TSMC’s operations as Taiwan determines its approach in the recent inflamed China-Taiwan tensions. 

America’s caution and desire to protect American interests while also ensuring the Pacific Rim is solely dependent on the United States depicts the complex geopolitical atmosphere of the Pacific. Contrary to 19th century America’s desire to expand to the Pacific as a frontier for economic and territorial gains, since 1945, America saw the Pacific as a rim of major nations making up the geopolitics. The Pacific has evolved to even greater strategic importance as America entered the 21st century despite no longer seeing it as an asset. One of the key strategies in place by America is a game of perpetual dependence to apply leverage on the Pacific Rim, as it is ever fearful of losing its central role in the rim.

Works Cited

Cumings, Bruce. What Is In A Rim? Critical Perspectives On The Pacific Region Idea. Edited by Arif Dirlik, Avalon Publishing, 1993.

Dudziak, Mary L. “How the Pacific World Became West.” SSRN, 18 November 2021, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3384743. Accessed 8 April 2024.

Englehart, Bob. “Political cartoon World Obama TPP Deal.” The Week, 27 May 2015, https://theweek.com/cartoons/557290/political-cartoon-world-obama-tpp-deal. Accessed 8 April 2024.

Lee, Timothy B. “The Trans-Pacific Partnership, explained.” Vox, 25 July 2016, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/7/25/18076450/trans-pacific-partnership. Accessed 8 April 2024.

Miller, Chris. Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. Simon & Schuster, 2022.