ABSTRACT
Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential race in November 2008 created an immediate expectation for an improvement and expansion in Washington’s relations with the Asia Pacific. Some observers even suggested that the American standing in Asia had been ruined by the preceding Bush administration (Pempel 2008). While empirical data does not seem to support the assertion of any devastating decline in Washington’s position, eminence and leadership in the Asia Pacific (Green 2008), ideas and perceptions matter in international relations. According to a widespread view, American preoccupation with conflicts in Southwest Asia and the Middle East (Afghanistan and Iraq) relegated US relations with the rest of Asia to secondary importance (Sutter 2009). The new Obama administration was quick to correct this picture. ‘The United States is back [in East Asia]’1 proclaimed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Assistant secretary of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell referred to Obama as ‘our first Pacific president’ (Davies 2009). Does the fact that the President was raised and schooled for many years in Indonesia, and grew up for most of his life in Hawaii, make him the cheerleader for a structural overhaul of US-Asia Pacific relations? Will US involvement in Asia overcome its presumably ‘ambivalent, even erratic’ nature (Acharya and Tang 2006: 39) and be guided by sound strategic considerations and well-defined regional partnerships?
