ABSTRACT
In a 2011 Foreign Policy article, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlined the Barack Obama administration’s foreign policy objective of deeper engagement with Asia, and with the phrase “the United States stands at a pivot”, US policy towards Asia acquired a name. 1 The “pivot”, occasionally referred to as the “rebalance”, 2 raised questions about US commitments in Europe and the Middle East, but was by and large welcomed in the Asia-Pacific. This chapter examines the thinking behind the pivot, Asia’s general response to this US initiative and surveys its impact on some Southeast Asian states, namely the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
